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U.S. Supreme Court Police remove the chain around an abortion rights demonstrator's neck after he chained himself to anti-scaling fence while protesting, Monday, June 6, 2022, outside the Supreme Court in Washington.
Border chaos, abortion ruling risk extremism
The Department of Homeland Security issued a terror alert Tuesday warning that anger over the chaotic U.S.-Mexico border or a looming Supreme Court decision on abortion rights could lead to more mass violence.
The department pointed to recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, as evidence of a “dynamic” threat environment, suggesting that more attacks are lurking. Focal points include the November elections, the high court’s decisions and, particularly, anger over the border crisis.
“Some domestic violent extremists have expressed grievances related to their perception that the U.S. government is unwilling or unable to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and have called for violence to stem the flow of undocumented migrants to the United States,” the department said in a National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin.
The bulletin delivered a grim assessment of America’s psyche, riven by political divisions and big questions about the direction of the country.
U.S. adversaries — particularly China, Russia and Iran — are feeding dissent, Homeland Security said.
Still, the country’s decision-makers are providing plenty of fuel.
Analysts said both sides of the abortion debate could erupt into violence with a looming Supreme Court ruling that could overturn nearly 50 years of precedent.
Congressional elections two years after the chaos of the 2020 presidential contest could spark attacks on government institutions, political parties, candidates and the elections themselves, the department said.
Analysts described a country on edge after the spate of high-profile shootings.
The department listed a broad range of potential targets: religious institutions, racial or ethnic minorities, government buildings, media institutions and “public gatherings.”
Homeland Security officials suggested that the most likely attacks won’t be conducted by organizations the government is monitoring.
“DHS continues to assess that the primary threat of mass casualty violence in the United States stems from lone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances,” the department said.
The warning was issued just minutes before the Senate Judiciary Committee convened a hearing on the domestic terrorism threat from White supremacy in the wake of last month’s shooting in Buffalo.
Senators heard from a University of Chicago professor who studies political violence and said that, based on polling, nearly 20 million Americans believe President Biden “stole” the 2020 election and that use of force is justified to return Donald Trump to the White House.
“A key indicator of long-term political violence in a country is the pool of the population that sees political violence as justified, and so this figure is extremely concerning,” said professor Robert A. Pape.
The Homeland Security bulletin tied some of the increased risks of violence to false narratives that analysts said deepen divisions.
“The continued proliferation of false or misleading narratives regarding current events could reinforce existing personal grievances or ideologies, and in combination with other factors, could inspire individuals to mobilize to violence,” said Homeland Security, pointing specifically to the border situation.
Mayorkas has acknowledged that an “unprecedented” level of illegal activity at the border is straining the government’s abilities.
His department said a “perception that the U.S. government is unwilling or unable to secure the U.S.-Mexico border” could be a locus for violence.
Department analysts pointed to last month’s mass shooting at a supermarket in a Black community in Buffalo as an example of someone inspired by racist conspiracy theories about the powers that be seeking to threaten “the existence of the White race” through the promotion of minorities.
The department also identified threats from other ideological viewpoints. It cited a May attack on a Taiwanese community in California and an April attack on a New York City subway during rush hour. That subway incident drew praise on forums associated with al Qaeda and ISIS, Homeland Security said.
Al Qaeda and ISIS supporters also celebrated a January attack on a synagogue in Texas, analysts said. They concluded that online forums will continue to be platforms for inspiring those already in the U.S. to take up arms.
ISIS in April released an audio message calling for supporters to “avenge” the death of the group’s leader. Homeland Security said that message encouraged people to use knives or vehicles to kill.
The bulletin also repeated warnings that China, Iran and Russia are intent on sowing discord in the U.S. It said they will use online means to deepen social divisions, particularly through “conspiracy theories and false or misleading narratives.”
“As the U.S. 2022 midterm elections approach, malign foreign actors could bolster their messaging to sow discord and influence U.S. audiences in keeping with practices during previous election cycles,” Homeland Security said.
Concrete advice for average Americans to deal with the emerging threats was sparse.
Officials urged people to be aware of their surroundings and locate the nearest security and try to fortify their ability to spot misleading narratives.
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Ivy, Jr., L.V.
L.V. Ivy, Jr., 48, passed away Saturday, June 04, 2022, at his home surrounded by his family in Tupelo,MS . Services will be on Saturday, June 11, 2022 at 1:00 at Grave-Side Service at Johnson Chapel Cemetery, Shannon, MS. Visitation will be on 2:00 until 5:00 at J.W. Porter's Memorial Chapel at Grayson-Porter's Mortuary .
Johnson Chapel Cemetery
L.v. Ivy
J.w. Porter
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Roebuck, Claude
Tupelo/Elizabethtown, KY-Claude Morgan Roebuck, (age 89), died on July 17, 2021, at Robin Brooke Senior Living in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. He was born February 6, 1932 on a farm near Nettleton, MS to Claude Metts and Gussie Morgan Roebuck. He was a member of St. Luke United Methodist Church in Tupelo, MS. After graduating from Tupelo High School, he attended Millsaps College, Itawamba Junior College, and the University of Mississippi where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education. After serving as an Accepted Supply Pastor for several Methodist Churches, he attended Florida State University where he received a Master of Social Work Degree. Claude's professional Social Work experience included positions with two government agencies. His work was rewarded with numerous awards, commendations and promotions. Positions included: State of Florida Division of Mental Retardation where he was Director of Social Work, Sunland Training Center at Gainesville, FL.: Director of Research and Evaluation, Sunland Training Center at Orlando, FL.; Programs and Services Director, Sunland Training Center at Orlando, FL; Director, Sunland Training Center, Orlando, FL.; Superintendent, Sunland Training Center at Orlando and Acting Regional Director for the Central Florida Region of the State Division of Mental Retardation. Claude's work with the Department of Veterans Affairs included Social Worker at VA Hospital, Tuscaloosa, AL and VA Outpatient Clinic, Orlando, FL.: Social Work Supervisor, VA Hospital, Tampa, FL.; Chief of Social Work Services at VA Hospitals in Montgomery, AL; St. Cloud, MN; Memphis, TN. and Gainesville, FL.; Assistant to the Director, VA Hospital, Montgomery, AL. and Chief of Program Management, Social Work Services, VA Central Office, Washington DC. Claude lived an long, interesting and productive life and his living was not in vain. A graveside service for family and friends will be held at 10AM Saturday, June 11, 2022 at Tupelo Memorial Gardens on Joyner St. Tupelo, MS. Burial will follow there. Holland Funeral Directors-Tupelo is honored to be serving their friends. Survivors include: two daughters, Alice Lynn Roebuck (Richard) and Claudia Ruth Roebuck Castenir (Dennis); two grandsons, Adam Castenir (Jenny) and Jason Castenir; four great grandchildren, Josiah, Hadley, Harper, and Hannah, and a host of nieces and nephews. Claude was preceded in death by his parents, Claude Metts and Gussie Morgan Roebuck; his devoted and beloved wife of 64 years, Ruth Dale Riley Roebuck on Aug. 17, 2013; and his second wife, Ann Young Roebuck whom he frequently said gave him a reason to live after Ruth died. Claude and Ruth had one daughter, Morgan Dale who died in infancy. Others who preceded him in death were his brother, Thomas Roebuck, and three sisters: Luene Waycaster, Velera Mae (Sis) Pettigrew, and Gussie Jewellene Barber. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to any of the following endowments at Create Foundation, 213 West Main Street, Tupelo, MS 38804: Ruth and Claude Roebuck Endowment for Saltillo First United Methodist Church. Alice Lynn Roebuck Endowment for United Way. Claudia Ruth Castenir Scholarship Endowment Fund. Morgan Dale Roebuck Memorial Endowment for Salvation Army. Claude and Gussie Roebuck Endowment for St. Luke United Methodist Church. Condolences may be emailed to hollandfuneraldirectors@comcast.net
Claude Metts
Claude Roebuck Endowment
Ruth Dale Riley Roebuck
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Second, Biden knew, as any experienced politician with 50+ years in D.C. would, that once the word got out to all the world’s corners that entering the U.S. was simply a matter of getting to the border, and surrendering to Customs and Border Protection, a huge illegal immigrant surge would follow. A new Center for Immigration Studies report written by Steven A. Camarota and Karen Zeigler found that since Biden’s Jan. 21, 2021, inauguration the nation’s foreign-born population has increased by 2 million persons and is, the authors aver, “mostly driven by illegal immigration.” More precisely, about two-thirds or 1.35 million of the overall increase resulted from illegal immigration.
Based on federal data from the Census Bureau’s monthly Current Population Survey, the CIS report calculated that the U.S. foreign-born population hit an historic high of 47 million in April, representing 14.3% of today’s total population, the highest percentage since 1910. Assuming the present open borders agenda continues, and no evidence exists that it will end during Biden’ remaining years in office, the U.S. foreign-born population will reach 14.9% of total U.S. population in September 2023, the highest mark in history.
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In this image provided by the Serum Institute of India, vials of freshly manufactured Novavax COVID-19 vaccines wait to be labeled in 2022, in Pune, India. The more traditional kind of COVID-19 vaccine moved a step closer to the U.S. market Tuesday, June 7, 2022. Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted to back shots made by Novavax for U.S. adults. If the FDA ultimately agrees, Novavax's option could become the nation's fourth COVID-19 vaccine.
Serum Institute of India for Novavax via AP
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Guyvester Dobbs, center, leads a prayer on the steps of Aberdeen City Hall last week. Prayers for Healing was the city's response to recent mass shootings, including a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that claimed the lives of 19 children and three adults.
Riverbend Baptist Church Pastor Mark Robbins leads a prayer, while Eddie Buchanan, Frankie Provias and Ann Tackett bow their heads.
ABERDEEN – In the wake of recent mass shootings throughout the country, pastors and citizens gathered in solidarity May 31 on the steps of City Hall to pray for an end to gun violence and for comfort for those impacted.
“We have a great country but we still have a lot of work to do. We’re asking everyone here today to take time out and say a prayer for those who have succumbed to gun violence over these last 200 years but most definitely the last two weeks,” said Mayor Charles Scott for the opening of the Prayers for Healing vigil.
A school shooting May 24 in Uvalde, Texas claimed the lives of 19 children and three adults, with 17 other people sustaining injuries. It followed a supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York May 14 in which 10 people were killed and three people were injured.
The two shootings were among more than 200 mass shootings in the United States thus far this year.
“Lord, I pray for these people in Texas, Buffalo and other places throughout the country that have become victims of violence and I pray for these people we will most likely never know and we will most likely never come in contact in this life but they are your children and we pray for them,” said Riverbend Baptist Church Pastor Mark Robbins.
Sheriff Kevin Crook was among those who spoke about the importance of prayer and priorities in the church.
“We need [prayer] more than ever before, and that’s the thing we did years ago – we took prayer out of schools. Once prayer left school, the wolves came in and there’s no control,” said Eddie Buchanan. “One of the things I did learn when I was in elementary school was thou shall not kill. Why? Because God said so and if you believe in Him, He’ll believe in you.”
Prayers for Healing followed Aberdeen’s observance of the National Day of Prayer earlier in May.
“We need strength and we need to come together to pray for all the nonsense and violence all over the country,” said Barbara Vasser, who organized both events.
Kevin Crook
Charles Scott
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Corinth mayoral race pits incumbent and police chief
CORINTH • Three-term incumbent Tommy Irwin and two-term Police Chief Ralph Dance were the only qualifiers for this summer’s Corinth mayoral race.
The Alcorn County city is on a different election cycle that most Mississippi municipalities. Qualifying ended June 3 for the aldermen, police chief and mayoral candidates. Since Irwin and Dance are both Republicans, the race will be settled during the Aug. 2 primary.
Irwin has been mayor since 2010 and is running on his record. Dance has worked for the city for 27 years, the last eight as chief. He feels it is a time for change.
Irwin was a retired businessman and political newcomer when he was elected 12 years ago. He said at the time the city was in poor financial shape and overly dependent on scant sales tax revenues.
“I knew I needed a brand (name business) because 60% of the budget was sales tax,” Irwin said. “I chose Cracker Barrel. It took a while to get them, but it set off a chain reaction. We have 30-40 new businesses come in since then.”
Chick-Fil-A opened recently and Starbucks should be open within months.
“This election is about experience – do you want to keep what we have going,” Irwin said. “Over the last 11 years, six of those were historic records for sales tax.”
Dance admits that Irwin had made gains for Corinth, but he feels it is time for someone new to take the reins.
“The city is in a growing stage and there is a lot going on,” Dance said. “But I am running for the employees, who are some of the worst paid in the state. The mayor and board of aldermen haven’t done enough to make pay competitive in public works or in public safety.”
He said the city has at least 40 openings in those two categories. Dance said starting officers make $14.77 per hour. When you take out for retirement and taxes, they “don’t make anything.”
Irwin said if re-elected, he would continue to focus on the future.
“Seven years ago, I wanted to start a rebuild of Corinth – curbs, gutter, storm drains, alleys, milling and paving,” Irwin said. “But first, you have to do a utility assessment to find out where every gas line, sewer line, water line, electric line is underground.”
The assessment would give city planners a better idea of what they were facing before starting any projects and could possibly avert disasters. But it is a big ticket item. In 2015, the city would have had to borrow $350,000 to pay for it. The price tag has grown to more than $600,000, but the city now has federal COVID-19 stimulus money to pay for it.
“I won’t let anyone start construction until we get it done,” Irwin said. “It’s not about me; it’s about the future. We have got to think about 10 years from now.”
After 34 years in law enforcement, Dance said he was ready to move on to something different. He has always enjoyed being a public servant and wants to ensure the city values its employees – doing a better job to retain the employees they have and to make jobs more appealing to encourage more to apply for openings.
“One of my priorities would be to increase pay. Infrastructure is a problem, the roads and bridges need work, but you have to take care of the people,” Dance said. “There are a lot of programs I want to see continue. We (the city) borrowed money for road improvement. We got so far behind in paving that we are behind the 8 ball.”
The two men differ on their opinions of the last decade for Corinth.
“When the budget is heavily dependent on sale tax, you have to work hard,” Irwin said. “No one has done for Corinth what my team has done in the last 12 years.”
The challenger said the current administration has been failing and the city needs someone with new ideas.
“With the economy the way it is, with inflation and shortages, we need strong leadership and I think I am a strong leader,” Dance said. “I am not one to sugarcoat things. I will tell you the truth, even if it is not what you want to hear.”
While the party primary election is still two months away, people will be able to vote absentee beginning June 17.
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Tupelo City Council approves public comment limit in split vote
TUPELO • Citizens are once again limited in the number of times they can address Tupelo City Council about the same issue.
On Tuesday, the Tupelo City Council voted 6-1 to reinstate a 2017 rule barring citizens from addressing public officials about a single topic more than once within a three-month period. Ward 7 Councilwoman Rosie Jones voted against the measure, calling it a fix to a problem that did not exist.
“People should be able to say what they want to say,” she said. “If people come to the council, you explain to them what is going on and the city’s process, then there isn’t any need for (the amendment) unless it becomes a problem.”
The rule is an amended version of one first approved by the council five years ago, during the previous administration. In its original form, the ordinance prohibited citizens from speaking to the council about a specific topic more than once within a six-month span.
When it took over in 2021, the current council voted to approve the rule with no changes. However, it was later discovered a clerical error had omitted the time limit, effectively nullifying the policy.
During their May 17 meeting, the council addressed the six-month rule and its reinstatement, but stopped short of voting to reimplement it.
On Monday, during the regular pre-council meeting, council members tackled the topic again, this time discussing whether to keep or cut the current six-month limit.
Ward 6 Councilwoman Janet Gaston argued that the six-month limit was too long and suggested changing it to twice in six months.
“I don’t think it has been abused by any number of people,” Gaston said. “I think six months is a long time. … I would say maybe twice in a six-month period. If there is something that needs to be taken care of and it hasn’t, that falls on us.”
Most of the council was receptive to both Gaston’s suggestion and the original proposal, although city officials admitted it was not a common issue, although it has come up.
Ward 2 Councilman Lynn Bryan said the city needed guard rails for topics that were out of the council’s hands.
“This was put in place for bigger issues that people want a major forum to talk about,” he said, pointing to the state flag, which was a hot-button topic for decades before being changed last year. “They can still come up here and talk to us 24 times, just not about the same subject."
Jones was the councilperson most staunchly against the rule. She said in order for her to vote in favor of it, she would have needed a guarantee baked into the ordinance that the city would follow up with the resident and make sure it addressed their concerns.
“I don’t see a problem with coming back to get an update,” she said. “If it can’t be resolved, simply state there is nothing we can do about it.”
Chief Operations Officers Don Lewis said if a resident addresses the council, the administration routinely follows up with them after the meeting. He also noted multiple citizens could speak on the same topic within the three-month period.
“If they come before the council and bring a concern, whether it is directed at you, the mayor or a department head, we are going to follow up on that, and you should get an answer as the council,” he said.
State Open Meetings laws forbids municipalities from barring citizens from attending meetings, but municipalities can set rules on how and when residents can address the council during these public meetings.
“We are trying to put reasonable limits on (public comments),” City Attorney Ben Logan said, adding the Mississippi Ethics Commission has ruled that municipalities have the right to set guidelines for public commentary.
Lynn Bryan
Ordinance Change
Ben Logan
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Out of Session
What exactly happened with U.S. Rep. Michael Guest?
Today is Thursday, June 9, and if you’re reading this email, you’re probably wondering two things:
1. Why am I getting this newsletter when the Legislature isn’t in session?
2. What the hell happened to Michael Guest in the Republican primary for the 3rd Congressional District race?
The answers to those two questions are actually related.
After the success of The Session newsletter this past legislative session, I wanted to continue to engage with readers in the personal way this newsletter allows me to do outside of a session.
State lawmakers are expected to conduct crucial hearings over the summer, state agencies are still implementing important policies and, now, two incumbent Republican congressmen are being forced into runoff elections.
You deserve a newsletter that can break down the news outside of the three months during the legislative session. Therefore, we are planning to publish The Session newsletter every other week while the Legislature is out of session.
If you have any ideas on how we can improve the newsletter or engage with all of you better, feel free to email me at taylor.vance@djournal.com.
What happened to Michael Guest?
But, let’s get into the shocking election results in the 3rd Congressional race in central Mississippi.
It was widely expected that U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo would get drawn into a runoff because of the large number of candidates in the 4th Congressional District on the Coast.
But it’s far more surprising that Guest, a former district attorney in Madison and Rankin counties, is being forced into runoff by Michael Cassidy, a former Navy pilot who has touted his support of former President Donald Trump.
So how in the world could a political newcomer with low name recognition force Guest into a runoff? Here’s how I broke it down and made sense of it:
1. Michael Cassidy had money.
Whenever a challenge is going up against an incumbent, they don’t always have access to money or donations, making their odds of success significantly slim.
We can look to the Republican primary in the 1st Congressional District as an example where incumbent Rep. Trent Kelly easily defeated a challenge from a DeSoto County Republican.
2. Cassidy had a message, and he stuck with it.
Cassidy repeatedly hammered Guest for voting in favor of establishing the Jan. 6 Commission to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Regardless of what you think about that message, voters found it receptive, particularly in rural counties.
3. Low voter turnout.
Overall, turnout was very poor, which isn’t uncommon in a primary election for midterms.
In this case the onus is on the incumbent to remind Republican voters to get out and vote on the day of the election. Instead, Cassidy was able to pounce on a low-interest race and convince GOP voters that they should vote against Guest.
4. Guest had a limited presence in the district leading up to the election.
This is probably the most important point that can’t be understated enough. The prevailing view is that Guest took the race for granted and assumed that his prior name recognition would be enough to win the GOP nomination.
But the problem is when you have an opponent willing to spend over $200,000 of personal money on a Mississippi race, you can’t take anything for granted.
A runoff between Cassidy and Guest will take place on June 28. Scores of new campaign dollars are expected to flood into the state to pump out negative campaign ads.
Best from the Daily Journal
Incumbent U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly and political newcomer Dianne Black have captured their respective party’s nominations in their bids to represent Northeast Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Half a year after State Auditor Shad White alleged a community college and private business leaders misspent more than $2 million in taxpayer funds, the state Attorney General is still deciding whether to file suit to recoup those funds.
Best from other outlets
It could be the end of the year before medical marijuana is available in Mississippi because businesses need time to receive licenses and to grow, test and prepare to sell the products. (The Associated Press)
The state fighting to dismantle abortion rights has a long history of permissive abortion laws. (Mississippi Today)
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Now that school is out, sports have come to an end for the most part and summer is here, it is only fitting to recap one of the most successful years that we have seen from a school’s athletic program.
The year that the Amory Panthers have had in athletics can be described in many different words, but I will describe it in one…reminiscent. Let’s take a break from present-day matters, hop in a time machine and go back to the times when the Panthers saw this much success in multiple sports.
The last time that this happened can be dated all the way back to the mid to late 90s when their football program won back-to-back state championships in 1994 and 1995. These were the teams’ first two championships ever, and it was only a sign of things to come.
Amory’s reign continued two years later as its baseball team won their first state championship, while the football program won its third a year later in 1998. A year after winning it all in football, Amory baseball and slow-pitch softball won state championships.
The Panthers saw similar success in the early 2000s as their football finished as state runner-ups in 2002, while the baseball program finished as runner-ups in 2003 and 2010. With all this success in the 90s, early 2000s and 2010, the Panthers seemed to have been stuck in a lull for a while until this past year.
The 2021-2022 Panther football team set the tone for the year, reaching state after taking down North Panola at North half. Amory’s season ended in a bittersweet moment, finishing as state runner-ups after a loss to Jefferson Davis County, but it was a big step in the right direction.
In the winter, Amory athletics saw more success with both of its basketball teams reaching the second round of the playoffs, while both soccer teams made it to North half. This was a major accomplishment for the girls’ soccer team because it was the first time in the team’s history that they reached North half.
As the season changed, Amory athletics continued to succeed, and the spring was full of hardware for the Panthers. In powerlifting, we saw JaTavious Ward win a first-place medal at state, while his teammates Ron Jenkins and Nathaniel Walker placed second in their respective weight classes.
A month later, Amory’s golf team brought home the second-place trophy at state, while Jayla Spratt walked away with a first-place medal for Amory track in that same month. With all of this success going on, it may have had some people thinking “What’s next?” Well, the moment that happened next was history in the making, 23 years of history to be exact.
On May 28, Amory baseball claimed its first state championship since 1999, making it the third state championship in the program’s history to cap off a great year for the Panthers.
Amazing, outstanding and incredible are adjectives that you may hear around the town to describe everything that Amory athletics has accomplished this year, but I will just stick to my word…reminiscent.
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Hamilton's Joshua West and Quinn Pounders represented the Lions in the Crossroads all-star game in Hattiesburg last Tuesday. Pictured from left: Joshua West, Hamilton coach Dallas Flippo, Quinn Pounders.
Courtesy/Lane Pounders
Hamilton’s Joshua West and Quinn Pounders finished out both of their successful high school careers competing in the Crossroads All-Star game in Hattiesburg last Tuesday.
West pitched a scoreless inning in the bottom of the fifth, while Pounders finished with a base hit and an RBI.
West thanked the Lions’ coaching staff for putting him in the position to compete in the all-star games that he has played in.
“I enjoyed my experiences playing in the NEMCABB and MAC all-star games also because they were more competitive with all the players across the state,” West said. “I also wanted to thank Coach (Dallas) Flippo, Coach (Cody) Allsup and Coach (Scotty) Nichols for the opportunity to play for them for four years.”
Pounders said that his experience at the all-star game was one to remember, getting to meet and play alongside multiple talented players.
“I wouldn’t want to play my last high school game anywhere else than the one I played in at Hattiesburg,” Pounders said. “It was a really fun game to play in, and it was fun to meet all of those guys and play with two D1 commits. Playing with people that I didn’t know, talking in the dugout and just the whole experience was a great way to end my high school career.”
West said that he was thankful for the opportunity to compete in his last high school game alongside his teammate Pounders.
“There were some emotions because this was my last high school game, and I know I can’t go back and fix anything, but I was thankful for the opportunity,” he said. “Quinn and I have been friends throughout high school, so playing with him one last time was amazing and it felt good to have a friend there along with me.”
According to Pounders, there was a range of emotions from the ride to Hattiesburg to the very last pitch.
“Getting to play with Josh (West) was amazing,” Pounders said. “It was good from the ride down there in the morning until the last pitch was thrown, and I had to say bye to him on the field for the last time.”
Mostly cloudy early, then sunshine for the afternoon. High 87F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..
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James Martin, 59, of Mooreville, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, embezzlement.
Jimmy Prater, 39, of Pontotoc, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, felony taking of a motor vehicle.
Jason Howard Reed, 41, of Fulton, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, grand larceny.
Jimmy Thrasher, 55, of Tupelo, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, burglary of a building.
A Pontotoc woman said her ex-girlfriend broke the driver’s window of her car at 2 a.m. outside a County Road 506 Shannon residence. She said the ex is mad that she is dating someone else.
A County Road 659 Verona man said the neighbor’s three dogs charged his wife Sunday morning. She had to swing her Bible back and forth to avoid being bitten. He said they have video of the incident.
A Mantachie man said someone stole the county-issued garbage cans from his Highway 371 Mooreville rental properties.
A Calvert Drive Tupelo man said his nephew showed up uninvited and unwanted and was told to leave. He said the nephew used to live there but moved out.
Several Martinrea Automotive employees thought a coworker had a firearm on the plant floor. The man was brought to the general manager, who searched his bag and found no weapon.
A County Road 2890 Baldwyn woman said a female showed up uninvited and unwanted, bringing a couple with her. The woman asked them to leave and they refused. Deputies arrived and told the suspects to leave and not return.
A County Road 109 Shannon woman said her boyfriend came home and they got into an argument over money and child custody. He took her cell phone, so she took his debit card.
A Mountain Leader Trail Lake Piomingo woman returned home around 6 p.m. and found a female inside her house without permission. The suspect was arrested and charged with trespassing.
A County Road 1009 Tupelo woman said there was a suspicious white female in her flowers around 8:30 p.m. She told the suspect to leave, and the female walked behind the neighbor’s bushes. When deputies arrived, the 42-year-old suspect ran into the caller’s residence, where she was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
A County Road 841 Guntown woman said her 18-year-old brother was driving her car. He is trying to buy it from her but hasn’t been making payments. When she tried to take the car back, he refused and a verbal altercation ensued.
The following reports were filed Wednesday by the Tupelo Police Department.
Tombigbee Electric Power Association reported someone stole a license plate off a Freightliner work truck.
A Wilson Street woman returned home to discover some had stolen a Stihl leaf blower and a Stihl string trimmer.
A Belk employee said a black male picked up a $110 bottle of Awaken cologne, concealed it in a bag and walked out of the store without paying.
A woman said while her car was parked outside her Robins Street law office, someone broke the driver’s window of her 2015 Mercedes. Police found an airsoft BB stuck inside the window.
A Joyner Avenue man said his sister’s ex-boyfriend arrived around 6:30 p.m. and began threatening his life. He said the suspect has been harassing him for years.
A woman said she set her purse down the in the lobby of the South Gloster KFC while she worked. When she went back to get it, the purse was gone. She said there were only three employees and four customers in the building during the time. She said the purse contained her keys, license and Social Security Card.
A West Main Street business said a black male was beating on the store’s front window around 9:30 p.m., despite being told numerous times to not return to the property. He returned shortly after the officer left, banging on the front door, causing it break in a spiderweb pattern.
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Delta Council to meet as an unpredictable world has crop costs at scary levels
Council leaders cite progress on money for roads and bridges
By TED CARTER Contributing Writer
Ever-rising crop prizes should bring cheers to the growers who make up a huge portion of the Mississippi Delta Council’s membership. But not this year, not with the confluence of pandemic, war, oil shortages and international trade strife the world is seeing.
Growers across the Delta see the escalating costs of growing and harvesting crops and wonder just how things will shake out for them, Delta Council leaders say.
Input costs and ways to manage them are but a few of the pressing topics the region’s main economic development entity will take up when it convenes June 17 at Delta State University for its annual meeting. Council leaders cite the deep uncertainty caused by a stubborn global covid pandemic, war in Ukraine, worldwide oil and natural gas shortages and retaliatory tariffs, to name just a few.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine alone is set to cause the “largest commodity shock” since the 1970s, the World Bank warns, with cotton prices projected to be nearly 40 percent higher in 2022. Energy prices, on the other hand, are projected to rise more than 50 percent in 2022 before easing in 2023 and 2024, the World Bank says.
All the uncertainty follows a 2021 that Delta Council Executive Vice President Frank Howell calls “one for the record books.”
Halfway through the new year, “We have seen a huge runup in both prices in the commodity markets and the input side,” Howell said in a recent interview. The runup is “from all of our businesses, not just agriculture,” he said.
“Whether running a metal manufacturing facility in Clarksdale or farming operation n Bentonia, managing your costs is the name of the game.”
His best advice: Analyze all the information “and hope to get lucky, I’m afraid.”
Howell said the Stoneville-based organization is getting strong cost-management guidance from its Mississippi State University agriculture partners. And the help is surely needed as growers see “red ink all over the place,” he said, though he conceded that crop prices “look pretty good.”
One farm crop that bears watching, Howell said, is catfish. Feed prices and other input costs are in “record territory,” he said. “Catfish farmers are already bracing for a tough year.”
Tunica farmer Patrick Johnson Jr. is wrapping up his year as president of the Council which represents 19 Delta and part-Delta counties. Members will elect a new president at the June 17 gathering.
Johnson said in an interview that he spent a good part of his term in Stoneville and Jackson working on getting money for the Delta’s deteriorating bridges and crumbling roads.
“I felt we were able to have a positive impact in that arena,” Johnson said of the lobbying effort on behalf of a region that stretches from Warren County north to DeSoto County.
Both Johnson and Howell say they expect the Delta to do well in the dividing of a 2022 transportation pie that includes $984 million for new construction and $264 million for maintenance.
In addition, state legislators approved a $230 million infrastructure improvement plan that provides a $100 million increase to the state's Emergency Road and Bridge Repair Program.
Johnson and Howell say they expect this year’s funding will help shore-up at least some of the deteriorating bridges that have forced Delta commercial truck traffic to take detours.
“I’m pleased with the way they have allocated funds from different sources,” Howell said, citing federal pandemic relief, new federal infrastructure money and the significant share of state lottery revenues designated annually for roads and bridges.
Legislators, Howell said, “stepped up to the plate in the last session.”
The result should be “more maintenance on our roads and bridges,” he said.
In addition to transportation issues, the Delta Council’s role involves developing a workforce able to accommodate new industries and retain current ones. “We have had some strong activity,” Howell said, and predicted increased hiring across the region, especially in its northern section.
Influencing flood control policy is also a part of the organization’s mission. Delta growers and residents have been on an 80-year quest for construction of a pump system to ease flooding dubbed the Yazoo Backwater Project. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stated its support for construction of a $400 million pumping system in late 2020. But by spring 2021 complaints from environmental groups and its own top officials led the agency to put the project in limbo.
Howell, in what seemed an effort to moderate his dissatisfaction with the EPA, called the reversal “unfortunate.”
As it did a few years ago when it endorsed ridding the state flag of the Confederate battle emblem, the Delta Council this year took a side in one of the most controversial issues confronting the state: Expansion of Medicaid. It's time, the Council’s 150-member health and education committee said in a resolution, to expand Medicaid coverage to include the state’s uninsured working poor. Mississippi is among 12 states that have refused expansion.
Such an expansion, according to Johnson, would significantly improve the health of Mississippians and the fiscal health of its hospitals, especially the rural ones across the Delta struggling to remain open.
“We felt it was something we needed to get behind,” Johnson said.
If nothing else, the resolution of support should bring more attention to the issue, he said. “We hope it will gather momentum.”
Effort to expand the state’s Medicaid rolls have languished for nearly a decade but got a big boost in 2021 when Corey Miller, state economist, presented an analysis that shows new federal cost-sharing provisions would cover the first 3.5 years o the expansion costs while adding over 200,000 Mississippians to the insured rolls.
Miller put the state’s annual costs beyond the 3.5 years at about $500 million a year. However, “other savings in and outside of Medicaid on an annual basis roughly offset the annual costs of expansion,” Miller said in an interview after presenting the University Research Center’s economic analysis.
A main feature of the Delta Council’s annual meeting is the keynote speech during the business session. This year’s speaker will be author, motivational speaker and Oxford native David Magee. He is the author of Dear William, a bestselling book detailing intergenerational family addiction and recovery.
Patrick Johnson Jr.
Runup
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obits: Friday, June 10, 2022
James Boothe, Booneville
Essie Mae Cooper, Maben
Gary Kenneth Franks, Mantachie
William Futhey, Pontotoc
Bill Kimberlin, Booneville
Andra Fay Kiser, Amory
Virginia Neely Taylor, Tupelo
MANTACHIE - Gary Kenneth Franks, 78, passed away Wednesday, June 8, 2022, at Quitman County Health and Rehab in Marks. Services will be on Friday, June 10, at 1 p.m. at the McNeece-Morris Funeral Home Chapel in Mantachie. Burial will be in the Fawn Grove Cemetery. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. until service time Friday at the funeral home. Condolences may be shared with the Franks family at mcneecemorrisfuneralhome.com.
BOONEVILLE - Bill Kimberlin, 71, passed away Tuesday, May 31, 2022, at home in Booneville. Memorial services will be on Saturday, June 11, 2022, 5:00 PM at Booneville Funeral Home. Family visitation will be 4:00 PM until service time at 5:00 PM at Booneville Funeral Home.
BOONEVILLE - James Boothe, 83, passed away Wednesday, June 1, 2022, at home in Booneville. Memorial services will be on Sunday, June 12, 2022 at Front Porch Restaurant. Visitation will be from 2:00 PM until 4:00 PM.
TUPELO - Virginia Neely Taylor, age 99, passed away at her home in Tupelo June 8, 2022 after a short illness. She was born May 14, 1923, in Plain, Mississippi to Ed and Doshie Neely. She graduated from Florence High School in 1941, and finished business school in Jackson. She worked for the Selective Service Department during World War II. She married Max Robert Taylor, Sr., October 18, 1944. After the war, Max was employed as the pharmacist at Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield and she worked as a bookkeeper. They raised their two children and attended First Baptist Church in Brandon. After 39 years of work at the State Hospital, they retired to Jackson keeping grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They were married for 65 years. After Max's death in 2010, Virginia moved to Tupelo, where she joined Lawndale Presbyterian Church.
In addition to being a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Virginia was an accomplished homemaker, shrewd bargain hunter, and excellent seamstress. She taught Sunday School and was active in various ministry groups.
Virginia is survived by her daughter, Lynda Taylor Honaker; her son, Dr. Max R. Taylor, Jr. (Judy); two grandchildren, Max R. Taylor, III (Jeannie), and Amanda Taylor Moyer (Phil); the Taylor great-grandchildren, Max IV, Atticus, Emmett, and Greer; the Moyer great-grandchildren, Pierson and Payne; and nephews, Buddy and Bill Lowther and Robert and Ted Taylor.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Ed and Doshie Neely; sister, Edwina Lowther; and her husband, Max R. Taylor, Sr.
Graveside services for her family will be 2 p.m. Saturday, June 11, 2022, at Florence Cemetery. W. E. Pegues Funeral Directors is entrusted with arrangements.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to your church, the charity of your choice, or Lawndale Presbyterian Church, 1500 Lawndale Dr, Tupelo, MS 38801.
Essie Mae Cooper
MABEN - Essie Mae Cooper, 84, passed away Tuesday, June 7, 2022, at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Oxford, MS. Services will be on Saturday, June 11, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. at Spring Valley Cemetery in Mathiston, MS. Visitation will be on Friday, June 10, 2022 from 6-7:00 p.m. at Montgomery Mortuary in Houston, MS. Montgomery Mortuary of Houston, MS in charge of arrangements. Burial will follow at Spring Valley Cemetery in Mathiston, MS.
AMORY - Andra Fay Kiser, 77, passed away on June 8, 2022, at the North Mississippi Medical Center-Gilmore in Amory. Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced later by E E Pickle Funeral Home.
MEMO, PHOTO, BORDER, PAYTON MORTUARY LOGO
PONTOTOC - Booker T. Cooperwood was born February 19, 1939 to the late Rilla Ivy Cooperwood and the late Henry Cooperwood in Pontotoc, MS. He departed this life at North Mississippi Medical Center in Pontotoc, MS on May 31, 2022. He was preceded in death by both parents; spouse, Ludean Young Cooperwood; spouse, Violet Cummings Cooperwood; two sons, Auther Bee Cooperwood and Lemar Cooperwood; three brothers, Earlie "Bo" King, James Cooperwood, William Cooperwood; three sisters, Victoria Heard, Modine Townsend, and Sarah Townsend.
Visitation will be Friday, June 10, 2022, from 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM at Payton Mortuary. Funeral service will be Saturday, June 11, 2022, at 2:00 PM at Good Shepherd Church of God in Christ. Viewing available one hour before service. Interment will be at Pontotoc City Cemetery. Services entrusted to Payton Mortuary.
PONTOTOC - William Dearman Futhey, Sr., passed away on Thursday, June 9, 2022 at the Pontotoc Nursing Home. He was born on June 3, 1942 in Grenada, MS to Eugene Guy "Skeet" Futhey, Sr. and Dorris Branscome Futhey. He graduated from Binford High School in Duck Hill, MS. William started his career with Sherwin Williams in Grenada, MS on December 1, 1969 and retired as Commercial Branch Manager in Memphis, TN on July 7, 2007, during his career, he managed several branch locations throughout TN. He was a member of Charity Baptist Church.
Services will be at 10 AM Saturday, June 11, 2022 at Charity Baptist Church with Rev. Kevin Merritt officiating; burial will follow in the Charity Cemetery. Browning Funeral Home in Pontotoc is honored to assist the family with the arrangements.
Pallbearers will be, David Tony, Danny Brown, Hunter Williamson, Donald Tallent, Jamie Tallent and Bro. Dustin Kindler.
Visitation will be from 9 to 10 AM Saturday at the church.
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In Mississippi, time spent in the garden can turn from a pleasant experience to complete misery due to the presence of insect pests. Many of these pests can be controlled with insecticides to make outdoor time more fun and your vegetable gardens more productive.
I will discuss things that should be considered before purchasing and applying insecticides. Improper choice of insecticide or application method can have unintended consequences including poor pest control, wasting time and money, and possible plant injury. The source for this column is the Mississippi State University Extension Service publication, “Control Insect Pests in and around the Home Lawn”.
Identify the pest
It is very important to know the pest you are trying to combat. Identifying the pest will ensure that the insecticide will be effective. Mississippi State University Extension Service Publications Insect Pests of the Home Vegetable Garden (P2347), and Insect Pests of the Home Landscape (P2369) can help make a positive identification. You can also text pictures of insects to 662-769-0547 for identification.
Know if the insecticide is labeled for the intended use
It is very important to read the insecticide label before purchasing and using the product. The product label is the law. If the label does not list the insect to be controlled and situation in which it will be applied, you should choose another product. For example, if you want to control cowpea curculios in your purple hull peas you need to read the label to verify that the product is intended for that use.
Know the active ingredient
There are numerous different brand names of insecticides that can be purchased. Many of them have the same chemical formulations. With a little practice you can recognize chemical names and their use. Learning chemical names including permethrin, carbaryl, and imidacloprid will be easier to remember than the brand names.
Know the formulation
Quite often the insecticide active ingredient can come in different forms. These formulations can include granules, powders, liquid concentrates, and ready to use sprays. Make sure that you have the needed equipment before purchasing the product.
Know the percentage of active ingredient
Insecticides can be purchased in different concentrations. For example, malathion can be purchased in a 50% or 57% concentration. This can make a big difference in the amount that should be mixed in each gallon of water.
Measure the area to be treated
Insecticide labels often give mixing instructions based on a unit of area such as 1,000 square feet. It is important to measure and determine the area of the location you plan to treat. This can be done by measuring the length and width of the location and multiplying the two.
Take the time to learn about the insects and the products that can control them to make your outdoor experiences more pleasant. For more information about insecticides feel free to call 662-489-3910 or email me at james.shannon@msstate.edu.
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Former Vice President Dick Cheney walks with his daughter Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection, in the Capitol Rotunda at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2022.
WASHINGTON • With never-seen video, new audio and a mass of evidence, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will attempt to show the "harrowing story" of the deadly violence that erupted that day and also a chilling backstory as the defeated president, Donald Trump, tried to overturn Joe Biden's election victory.
Thursday's prime-time hearing opened with eyewitness testimony from the first police officer pummeled in the mob riot and from a documentary filmmaker tracking the extremist Proud Boys, who prepared to fight for Trump immediately after the election and led the storming of the Capitol.
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Booker T. Cooperwood was born February 19, 1939 to the late Rilla Ivy Cooperwood and the late Henry Cooperwood in Pontotoc, MS. He departed this life at North Mississippi Medical Center in Pontotoc, MS on May 31, 2022. He was preceded in death by both parents; spouse, Ludean Young Cooperwood; spouse, Violet Cummings Cooperwood; two sons, Auther Bee Cooperwood and Lemar Cooperwood; three brothers, Earlie "Bo" King, James Cooperwood, William Cooperwood; three sisters, Victoria Heard, Modine Townsend, and Sarah Townsend. Booker T. dedicated his life to the Lord at an early age. He moved to Chicago, IL where he joined Wallace Temple Church and became a member of the deacon board. In 2009, he moved back to Pontotoc, MS and joined Good Shepherd Church of God in Christ. He dearly loved his family and church family. He also loved to fish, hunt, and visit Chicago, IL. He is survived by his wife of fifteen years, Mary Cooperwood; one son, Allen (Emma) Cooperwood of Starkville, MS; one daughter, Sarah (James) Barr of Pontotoc, MS; two stepsons, Boyd Sullivan and Terrell Sullivan both of Chicago, IL; two stepdaughters, Diane Sullivan and Lisa Sullivan both of Chicago, IL; 10 grandchildren, Doris Barr (Bernard Strong), Chris Barr (Stephanie), Amanda (Jessie) Armstrong, Suprina Stovall Cooperwood, J.C. Spraggins, Candie Vance, Ambreca Vance, Anthony Devine, Tasha Ellis, Brandy Ellis; 35 great grandchildren; three sisters, Christine Carter of Grand Rapids, MI, Ruby Berry of Pontotoc, MS, and Annie (John) Ware of Pontotoc, MS; one brother, Ozzie (Ruby) Cooperwood of Chicago, IL; one sister-in-law, Viola Cooperwood of Pontotoc, MS; a special goddaughter, Erika, of Chicago, IL; and a host of nieces, nephews, family, and friends. Visitation will be Friday, June 10, 2022, from 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM at Payton Mortuary. Funeral service will be Saturday, June 11, 2022, at 2:00 PM at Good Shepherd Church of God in Christ. Viewing available one hour before service. Interment will be at Pontotoc City Cemetery. Services entrusted to Payton Mortuary.
James Cooperwood
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Neely Taylor, Virginia
Virginia Neely Taylor, age 99, passed away at her home in Tupelo June 8, 2022 after a short illness. She was born May 14, 1923, in Plain, Mississippi to Ed and Doshie Neely. She graduated from Florence High School in 1941, and finished business school in Jackson. She worked for the Selective Service Department during World War II. She married Max Robert Taylor, Sr., October 18, 1944. After the war, Max was employed as the pharmacist at Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield and she worked as a bookkeeper. They raised their two children and attended First Baptist Church in Brandon. After 39 years of work at the State Hospital, they retired to Jackson keeping grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They were married for 65 years. After Max's death in 2010, Virginia moved to Tupelo, where she joined Lawndale Presbyterian Church. In addition to being a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Virginia was an accomplished homemaker, shrewd bargain hunter, and excellent seamstress. She taught Sunday School and was active in various ministry groups. Virginia is survived by her daughter, Lynda Taylor Honaker; her son, Dr. Max R. Taylor, Jr. (Judy); two grandchildren, Max R. Taylor, III (Jeannie), and Amanda Taylor Moyer (Phil); the Taylor great-grandchildren, Max IV, Atticus, Emmett, and Greer; the Moyer great-grandchildren, Pierson and Payne; and nephews, Buddy and Bill Lowther and Robert and Ted Taylor. She was preceded in death by her parents, Ed and Doshie Neely; sister, Edwina Lowther; and her husband, Max R. Taylor, Sr. Graveside services for her family will be 2 p.m. Saturday, June 11, 2022, at Florence Cemetery. W. E. Pegues Funeral Directors is entrusted with arrangements. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to your church, the charity of your choice, or Lawndale Presbyterian Church, 1500 Lawndale Dr, Tupelo, MS 38801. Expressions of sympathy and fond memories may be left at www.peguesfuneralhome.com.
Max Iv
Max Robert Taylor Sr.
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Hunter Elliott named Freshman All-American
OXFORD — Ole Miss freshman pitcher Hunter Elliott was named a Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Freshman All-American Thursday, Ole Miss announced.
Elliott, a Tupelo native, has cemented himself as one of the Rebels’ weekend starters and is set to throw in Sunday’s super regional matchup at Southern Miss. Elliott is 3-3 with a a 3.17 ERA in 59.2 innings pitched (nine starts). He has 82 strikeouts and 30 walks, and opposing batters are hitting just .211 off him. Elliott was also named to the SEC's All-Freshman team.
He is the first Ole Miss pitcher named to the team since 2019, when Doug Nikhazy received the honor.
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Young Elvis fans who taking part in this year's BECOMING Experience, a youth-focused Elvis tribute artist competition held as part of the annual Tupelo Elvis Presley Festival, take a tour of the King of Rock and Roll's Birthplace before they compete. The winner of this year's competition will win $1,000, a small statue of “Elvis at 13," a guitar from Tupelo Hardware and the chance to perform onstage with a live band following the Ultimate Elvis Tribute finals on Saturday night.
Guide Romona Edge leads kids taking part in this year's BECOMING Experience on a tour of the Elvis Presley Birthplace before they compete to kick off the 2022 Elvis Presley Festival in Tupelo.
Abby Hall shares the history of Elvis Presley's birthplace with young participants in this year's BECOMING Experience.
Kyle Clark of Dandridge, Tenn. joins other children at the Elvis Presley Birthplace Thursday as part of the "Becoming Experience" to help get this year's Elvis Presley festival underway.
YOUNG KINGS
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Caleb Barnett, 36, of Guntown, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, possession of methamphetamine.
Perry Isby, 37, of Tupelo, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, Mississippi Department of Corrections warrant.
Ganesha Marion, 22, of Verona, was arrested by the Mississippi Department of Corrections, violation of probation.
Andrew Ryan McClung, 26, of Hamilton, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, felony taking of a motor vehicle.
The following reports were filed Thursday by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
A County Road 778 Tupelo said someone stole a 2022 Dodge Ram pickup around 1:30 a.m. He has video of the theft but cannot identify the person.
A County Road 646 Plantersville woman recently received bills from Credit One, Sprint, AT&T and Verizon. Some of the charges were in Chicago, Illinois, and she has never been there. When the credit card was issued, she was in the hospital having heart surgery.
A Highway 348 Guntown man said someone broke into his shop and tore a hole in the wall during the process. Nothing appeared to be missing.
A Baldwyn man said someone else entered his daughter’s unlocked car while it was parked outside a County Road 2578 Guntown repair shop. The thief stole a Ruger .22-caliber pistol from the console.
A Titus Cove Mooreville man, 18, said someone tried to file a tax return for 2021 using his information. He said he did not have a job in 2021 and had no need to file taxes, but got a call from the IRS saying they needed more information on his return.
The Auburn Baptist Church reported a suspicious male in the cemetery at 10 a.m. An employee found a 47-year-old man who “seemed to be acting oddly.” A deputy responded and asked the man to leave.
A County Road 931 Saltillo woman said a female acquaintance threatened to knock all her teeth out and stomp her head in. The threats have been by text and on social media.
An Ohio-based realty company reported that someone stole a stove, refrigerator and copper pipes from a County Road 45 Tupelo house. The theft was noticed in December.
A Highway 370 Baldwyn woman, 82, said she let a 40-year-old male acquaintance borrow her car around 4 p.m. Sunday June 5. When he had not returned the 2003 Toyota Camry by Wednesday at lunch, she called 911. She said her purse was in the car and she did not have a phone to try to contact the suspect.
A County Road 1390 Mooreville woman said her son, 30, stole $36 from her wallet and she wanted him out of her house and off her property. She said he sleeps in his car in the driveway.
A Tombigbee Fiber worker was pulling fiber optic cable on County Road 154 Shannon when a 26-year-old residence confronted him for trespassing. He tried to explain why he was there but the resident assaulted him.
A man asked for deputies to stand by as he got some belongings from his mother’s County Road 1390 Mooreville house. He said he has had some problems with her in the past. He was arrested and charged with petit larceny based on an affidavit his mother swore out against him.
A Highway 371 Mooreville woman said an adult female Husky and a puppy showed up at her place. The dogs are friendly and the mother looks to have had a collar at one time.
A County Road 1205 Nettleton woman called and said she had a man working on her four-wheeler, and he was refusing to let her have the ATV back. She wanted deputies to carry her to the man’s County Road 1277 house to get her property. When deputies told her it was a civil issue and deputies could not do that, she got mad and hung up the phone.
A Tupelo woman went to get her clothes from her boyfriend’s State Park Road Mooreville house. He refused to let her in. When she called 911, he decided she could get her stuff. Deputies stood by until she was finished.
A man saw a four-wheeler on the security camera of a County Road 1282 church at 9 p.m. He called 911 since the church has had trouble with theft. Deputies found a man on a four-wheeler in the area. He said he turned around in the church parking lot but did not damage any property or steal anything.
A Mountain Leader Trail Lake Piomingo woman was awakened by loud music in the levee parking lot at 1:30 a.m. Deputies found two women, 24 and 62, who said they were just talking and didn’t realize they and their music had gotten loud. Both had been drinking and called a friend to come get them.
A Blair Street woman cannot find her Mississippi driver’s license or her U.S. military ID. She thinks someone entered her apartment and stole them from her purse.
Police responded to a disabled car on Hilda Avenue under Highway 45 around 10 p.m. The female driver was having battery issues. She said she would come back with the owner and remove the car, which was blocking a portion of the road. The Nissan Maxima was still there at 1 a.m. so the officer had it towed.
A West Main Kroger employee said a coworker was speeding through the parking lot and almost ran over her, so she called 911. The coworker said she feels like she is being harassed by the employee, who has reported her to the manager numerous times over things that turned out to be nothing. She said the employee is creating a hostile work environment.
The maintenance man at a Monument Drive apartment complex found the front door of a vacant unit had been kicked in and barricaded from the inside. Police responded and found the back bedroom window unlocked from the inside. The man said the former tenant was being harassed by a man, who might have broken in and been staying there after she left.
A Moore Avenue woman said someone ran over her mailbox around 11 a.m. A neighbor was behind a tan Jeep driven by a white male when it ran over the mailbox and fled. The neighbor followed the Jeep to a store at the intersection of Cliff Gookin Boulevard and South Thomas Street. He got the license plate number and returned home to give it to the responding officer.
A Scottish Inn guest said around 1 p.m. a woman started yelling at him, accusing him of sleeping with her. He said he did not know her or why she was shouting at him. As he was trying to drive away, the woman told her boyfriend to attack the man with a skillet. As he was leaving, the boyfriend was running at him with a skillet. He thinks the couple lives a few doors down from him at the North Gloster Motel.
A woman bought a $500 American Express gift card at CVS at Crosstown. When she checked her balance the next day, there was a transaction at a Connecticut Apple Store and her balance was $0.
An Enoch Avenue woman said she and her boyfriend got into an argument and he left in her car. The car was later found parked outside a Tedford Street house. He had an active arrest warrant from the Mississippi Department of Corrections and was taken into custody.
Mississippi Department Of Corrections
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Tupelo native Hudspeth finds his calling in coaching
Connor Hudspeth dropped by the Daily Journal offices on Thursday. It had been a while.
When he was in high school, Hudspeth would come to the Journal once or twice a week to take box scores over the phone. I wondered to myself if he might someday become a sports writer.
Thankfully, Hudspeth has chosen a much higher calling: coaching. And he’s the new head boys basketball coach at Vardaman High School.
Hudspeth, a Tupelo High grad, first got the coaching itch while serving as a student manager for the Mississippi State basketball team.
“I wanted to work in sports, regardless. I was thinking athletic department type stuff,” Hudspeth said. “And then I got into (coaching), and I really enjoyed the X’s and O’s and all that goes into it. I thought I could see myself doing this.”
Upon graduating from MSU in 2020, Hudspeth tried but failed to get a job as a graduate assistant, and COVID had just started raging.
“I was like, maybe I can’t do this,” he said.
But Hudspeth ultimately landed a job as assistant boys basketball coach at Tupelo Christian. That’s where he’s been the past two years, serving first under Jason Harrison and then under Scott Collier. Hudspeth was also head coach for the junior high and JV teams, and he handled social media.
A few weeks ago, he was at a coaches conference in Jackson and ran into Eddie Neal, who told Hudspeth he was leaving Vardaman for the boys basketball job at Houston. Neal said the Vardaman job was a good one.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” Hudspeth said. “And then he called me a few weeks later and said, ‘Hey, would you be interested?’ I said, ‘Sure, I’ll go out there and visit and talk to them some more.’ I went and visited, and I fell in love with it really quick.”
On the surface, it’s not the most attractive of jobs. The Rams were 5-18 last season and haven’t had a winning campaign in ages. But Neal saw measurable progress this past year.
“I saw their record like you did, it was 5-18, and I’m like, what have I done?” Hudspeth said. “But then I watched some of the games he sent me from the end of the year, and you could tell they slowly started competing and learning. He said he had to teach them a lot, grow their game, knowledge of it.”
Hudspeth has been commuting to Vardaman to run summer workouts, and the Rams will open summer league play in a couple of weeks. He plans to move there at some point, but he’s already becoming part of that close-knit community.
“I was walking in the store last week, and I had never seen the guy, never met the guy, and he said, ‘You’re the new head coach, aren’t you?’”
One thing I forget to tell Hudspeth before he left: He’d better call in his scores.
Connor Hudspeth
Vardaman Rams
Mississippi State Basketball
Tupelo Christian Eagles
Jason Harrison
Scott Collier
Eddie Neal
Vardaman High School
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Dr. David Talton and NMMC’s cardiothoracic surgery team recently performed Mississippi’s first MITRIS RESILIA valve replacement surgery.
TUPELO • North Mississippi Medical Center’s cardiothoracic surgery team recently performed Mississippi’s first replacement surgery using the MITRIS RESILIA valve, a tissue valve replacement that closely mimics the heart’s own mitral valve.
Mitral valve surgeries fix or replace a leaky or constricted mitral valve between the left heart chambers. Common conditions are mitral valve regurgitation, when the valve’s flaps (leaflets) don't close tightly and allow blood to leak backward, and mitral valve stenosis, when the valve leaflets become narrowed and reduce blood flow. NMMC cardiothoracic surgeons typically perform valve repair and replacement procedures as minimally invasive heart surgery requiring only a small incision.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the MITRIS RESILIA valve manufactured by Edwards Lifesciences on March 31. The valve has a saddle-shaped sewing cuff that mimics the asymmetric shape of the heart’s mitral valve and is designed to perform like it as well, handling the highest pressures in the heart.
“Our goal is always to repair a person’s own mitral valve, but that’s not always possible,” said David Talton, M.D., a cardiothoracic surgeon with NMMC’s Heart and Vascular Institute. “The reason has been because none of the mitral replacement valves work as well as your heart’s own mitral valve, and they tend to wear out over time. This valve uses anti-calcification technology that will potentially allow the valve to last longer than anything we’ve had in the past.”
NMMC was among the first in line for the new MITRIS RESILIA valve because the hospital and Cardiology Associates of North Mississippi participated in the COMMENCE Trial, a research study on the valve prior to FDA approval. NMMC and Cardiology Associates of North Mississippi enrolled eight patients in the study and followed them for five years.
“Research centers are selected due to recognized national excellence in health care. North Mississippi Medical Center has this distinction in cardiovascular care,” explains Barry Bertolet, M.D., an interventional cardiologist on NMMC’s Heart and Vascular Institute’s medical staff. “Through cardiovascular research studies, our patients have access to the very newest in technology, which continues after FDA approval.”
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Josh Gladden, vice chancellor for research and sponsored programs at the University of Mississippi, addresses participants at the 2022 Physical Acoustics Summer School, conducted this week at The Inn at Ole Miss.
Acoustics summer school program draws international scientists, students to UM
OXFORD • Graduate and postgraduate students from four countries traveled to the University of Mississippi campus this week to learn the latest in cutting-edge physical acoustics, including infrasound, medical acoustics, thermoacoustics, nonlinear acoustics, waves and bubbles.
Physical Acoustics Summer School 2022 is hosted by the university's National Center for Physical Acoustics, with support from the University of Texas and the Acoustical Society of America. The sessions began Sunday, June 5, and ran through Friday, June 10, at The Inn at Ole Miss.
This year's edition of PASS included 35 students from the United Kingdom, Russia, Netherlands and United States, who participated in an intense series of lectures highlighting important topical research. The week also included plenty of time for more informal conversations ranging from highly technical to career paths.
"The Physical Acoustics Summer School has a rich history of over 30 years of convening talented graduate students from multiple countries for a week to learn advanced concepts in the physics of acoustics and applications from world-renowned experts," said Josh Gladden, UM vice chancellor of research and sponsored programs, professor of physics and director for PASS 2022. "PASS graduates have gone on to accomplish highly impactful research and reach leadership positions in academia, government and industry. The University of Mississippi, home of the National Center for Physical Acoustics, is proud to host PASS for the third time."
Participants said the sessions help them as they aim for careers in the field.
"I was inspired to come to PASS after hearing how fun and educational, at the same time, it can be," said Ekaterina "Katie" Ponomarchuk, a graduate student from Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia, during this week's program. "It's also a chance for me to immerse myself into American culture and get to know my peers in acoustics from different universities."
Cameron A. McCormick, a postdoctoral appointee at Pennsylvania State University, said he came to PASS to learn about topics that aren't in his program or that he didn't have time to take.
"There aren't many opportunities like PASS available to young acousticians," he said. "A big part of it is also hanging out with researchers and fellow acoustics students from all over in a low-key environment where we're all on the same level."
Josh Gladden
Cameron A. Mccormick
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Sally Earl, right, assists Ole Miss two pharmacy students at an interprofessional experience session focused on poverty. Originally from Corinth, Earl has spent much of her post-college career practicing in North Carolina, but recently returned to Oxford to share her knowledge with others.
Whitney Tarpy I UM School of Pharmacy
Sally Earl
Corinth native, pharmacy professor brings insight into classroom for Ole Miss students
By Patrick Smith University of Mississippi
OXFORD • Sally Earl's career has been defined by a willingness to collaborate with those in and out of the pharmacy profession.
In 2019, Earl's clinical practice moved to the Baptist Cancer Center in Oxford, where she is focused on clinical pharmacy management of hematology and oncology patients with a focus on oral chemotherapy. This role allows Earl to work with a large interprofessional group, including physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers and dieticians.
"My clinical roles have all given me the opportunity to work with interprofessional teams and see the benefit this approach has to patient care," Earl said.
"This can be a very challenging role as we as faculty have to practice the core competencies for interprofessional practice," she said. "However, we have been very successful at developing sustaining programming and growing the partnerships each year."
"From the IPE perspective, health care does not occur in silos," Earl said. "All of the different disciplines must work together in order to have the best outcomes for our patients."
Earl's work in the interprofessional space is being recognized by her peers as well. This year, she was selected as a distinguished fellow by the National Academies of Practice.
"As I was preparing my application materials and reviewing the previous inductees, I was so impressed with the achievements of these members that I did not get my hopes up for becoming a fellow," Earl said. "With that in mind, I was very surprised and excited when I received the email with the offer."
Seena Haines, chair and professor of pharmacy practice as well as vice president of professional development for NAP, nominated Earl for the honor. Earl's work made her well-suited for the fellowship, Haines said.
"Dr. Earl is well deserving of this recognition," she said. "She has been integrally involved in the interprofessional course series in the new curriculum, and is also engaged in research regarding the impact on student learning, team readiness and collaborative practice."
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Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Finch addresses delegates to American Legion Boys State on Thursday, June 2, at the University of Mississippi. The annual weeklong event provides leadership development for rising high school seniors.
More than 250 high school seniors converge on Ole Miss for Boys State leadership training
OXFORD • As a delegate to the American Legion Boys State in 2014, Milton Robinson had a life-changing experience; as director of the weeklong leadership training, his goal is to see that this year's delegates have the same transformative encounter.
"Eight years ago, I bought into this program and it turned me around," said Robinson, who oversees the annual event at the University of Mississippi, which began on May 29 and concluded on June 3. The week brought together 263 rising high school seniors from across Mississippi for the goal of "developing tomorrow's informed, responsible citizens."
"The university's commitment to the success of Mississippi high school students remains strong through our partnership with the American Legion Boys State program," said Bradley Baker, director of the Ole Miss Student Union. "While the students are fully immersed in the leadership opportunities afforded by participating in Boys State, they are able to take full advantage of living on the most beautiful campus in the country and spending time in first-class facilities throughout the week."
Ole Miss hosted its first Boys State in 2016 and has hosted every year since except 2020, when all activities were canceled because of the pandemic.
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LeShae Collums
Pontotoc math teacher among five in state to receive national recognition
JACKSON • A Pontotoc elementary school math teacher is among five K-6 grade Mississippi teachers who been named as 2022 state-level finalists for the prestigious Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST).
LeShae Collums is a third-grade math teacher at D.T. Cox Elementary in the Pontotoc City School District. She has taught for eight years.
The PAEMST Program is the nation’s highest honor for teachers of mathematics and science (including computer science). Two Mississippi teachers will be selected for the 2021-22 PAEMST award cycle. National honorees receive a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation, recognition at a White House ceremony, and the opportunity to provide input on policies to improve science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science education.
When it comes to her personal teaching philosophy, Collums said she believes every student is capable of achieving great things. It's up to their educators to discover how best to teach them.
“All students are capable of learning when I meet them where they are and push towards higher levels of learning, which will prepare them for futures inside and outside of the classroom," she said.
Mississippi’s 2022 PAEMST state-level finalists include:
Jana Chao, a fifth-grade computer science teacher at Eastside Elementary in the Clinton Public School District. Chao has taught for 15 years.
Wendy Dean, a fourth-grade teacher of all subjects at Monticello Elementary School in the Lawrence County School District. She has taught for 26 years.
Jennifer Hite, a fifth-grade math and science teacher at Pearl Upper Elementary School in the Pearl Public School District. Hite has taught for over 13 years.
Dr. Marti Ladner, a fifth-grade science teacher at Pass Christian Elementary School in the Pass Christian School District. Ladner has taught for 19 years.
Established in 1983 by the White House, the PAEMST program allows each state to select up to three state finalists in mathematics and up to three state finalists in science. One of the state finalists in each content area may be selected as the Presidential Awardee for the state, which is the highest recognition that a kindergarten through 12th grade mathematics or science teacher may receive for outstanding teaching in the United States.
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County fairs developed in the northeastern United States in the early nineteenth century to promote agriculture. Events included horse racing, plowing contests, livestock judging, and exhibits of agricultural equipment and techniques. Organizations, sometimes called societies, were formed to host annual fairs and to acquire land for permanent fairgrounds. The years between 1870 and 1910 are referred to as the golden age of agricultural fairs. As popularity of county fairs grew, entertainment options expanded to include bicycle races, balloon shows, automobile races, and airplane demonstrations. About the same time county fairs were gaining in popularity, the national 4-H program was created with the passage of the Smith-Lever Act in 1914. Through the 4-H program, boys and girls were encouraged to exhibit entries at the fair.
The Pontotoc County Fair began in 1916, making 2022 the 107 anniversary for this event. The County Fair is hosted through the efforts of an all-volunteer fair board. The Pontotoc County Fair Board, led by President Tommy Newell, works countless hours each year to organize this event. Tommy has been president of the Fair Board for the past three years, following former president Joe Whitten who worked for many years promoting the Fair. The goal of the Fair Board is to continue the rich tradition of the American county fair while bringing an enjoyable, family-friendly event the entire community can enjoy.
One of the many historical aspects of county fairs is the exhibits. Both children and adults can enter exhibit items to win ribbons and prize money. The adult exhibits are organized each year by the Pontotoc County Mississippi Homemaker Volunteers (MHV). MHV member, Lynda Smith, is overseeing this year’s exhibits and encourages all local adults to participate.
You do not have to be a member of the Mississippi Homemaker Volunteers to bring items to exhibit. One important change in this year's fair is that the exhibits will be set up and judged the week before the County Fair, Tuesday and Wednesday, June 28 -29, and will be on display for public viewing during the County Fair. To pick up an exhibit booklet with instructions, come by the Pontotoc County Extension Office at 402 C. J. Hardin, Jr. Drive. Entry categories include:
Home Canning
Textiles and Household Articles
Vegetables and Fruits
This year, experience a piece of history by bringing your family to the Pontotoc County Fair during July 5-9, 2022 at the Pontotoc Agricenter. For questions about events at the fair, please contact the Extension Office at 662-489-3910 or look for details on Facebook.
A complete schedule of events will be published in forthcoming issues of this newspaper.
4-H (n.d.). 4-H History. Retrieved from: https://4-h.org/
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Project ELECT leaders Dr. Eric Lewis, OJ Salters and Robert Hall accept a $5,000 grant from the MassMutual Foundation on behalf of the organization. Project ELECT will use the grant to strengthen its efforts to continue educating the community.
Tupelo-based Project ELECT receives national service award grant
TUPELO - A Tupelo-based leadership group received a national grant for its community service.
Project ELECT (Enthusiastic Leaders Engaging in Changing Times) received $5,000 from the MassMutual Foundation. The award was given to 32 organizations as part of the foundation’s 25th annual national community service award program.
Project ELECT will use the grant towards its community education efforts. A key goal for Project ELECT is showing the organization can be relied upon for trustworthy and meaningful information, said Dr. Eric Lewis, Project ELECT treasury and part of its health committee.
“One of the biggest things I think we’ll be using these funds for is to help to re-establish and further strengthen that connection to the community so we can serve as that conduit of information,” Lewis said.
The organization has been active since 2016, focusing on community and economic development, health care, financial planning, crime prevention and education. Project ELECT became truly operational during the pandemic. Health committee leaders Lewis and Dr. Vernon Rayford focused on providing reliable information about COVID-19, especially for the Black community.
Project ELECT is increasing youth awareness on different educational and occupational opportunities, Lewis said.
“We’re trying to develop lines of communication so that when we have something that we feel is worthwhile to be put out there, people can recognize Project ELECT and say OK, that’s something we need to listen to,” Lewis said.
Social media has played a large part in Project ELECT’s outreach. Tentative plans for the grant are strengthening its social media presence and potentially advertising.
The grant comes as a result of the volunteer efforts of Robert Hall, the Project ELECT chairman and a financial professional affiliated with the Capital Financial Group in Tupelo.
Hall has been with Project ELECT since 2016 and with the Capital Financial Group for five years. The MassMutual Foundation was “proud of the time and energy” Hall dedicated to his community, Dennis Duquette, head of MassMutual Community Responsibility and president of the MassMutual Foundation, said in a press release.
Project Elect
Massmutual Foundation
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Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, ranking member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, makes an opening statement as the panel holds a markup hearing to craft the Democrats' Build Back Better Act, massive legislation that is a cornerstone of President Joe Biden's domestic agenda, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. The high cost of the bill, to help families and combat climate change, would be financed in part by increasing taxes on the wealthy and corporations.
Unemployment benefits deemed as ‘high-risk’ after high pandemic fraud
Usually, GAO adds new programs to its high-risk list when a new list is issued every other year. But in “urgent” cases Congress’ chief watchdog will make emergency updates to its list, and that’s what it did here.
There also was plenty of lower-level fraud.
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced a 65-month sentence against a Florida man who stole more than $170,000 in unemployment benefits by using pilfered identities and having payment cards sent to his address.
Local police caught him when he used a card issued in someone else’s name to buy a laptop computer in Elkridge, Maryland, in 2020. They then found 16 fraudulent claims the man had submitted to various state unemployment agencies.
Republicans on Capitol Hill said the GAO’s fraud findings should be a wake-up call.
“This troubling report says the federal government has no idea how much of the taxpayers’ dime has been lost in the greatest theft of tax dollars in American history — and that’s the point,” said Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.
Democrats acknowledged “bad actors” who took advantage of the system, but cheered other GAO findings released Tuesday showing the nearly $900 billion in government assistance helped stabilize many Americans’ finances and survive the economic turmoil of the early pandemic.
“This supplemental funding was the difference-maker for so many families,” said Rep. Richard E. Neal, Massachusetts Democrat and House Ways and Means Committee chair. “It kept them in their houses, with food on their tables, and ultimately, laid the groundwork for our economy to make the comeback we’ve seen over the last year.”
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An investigator works at the scene after a mass shooting at a supermarket, in Buffalo, N.Y., May 16, 2022. A white man who gunned down 11 at the synagogue shared his antisemitic rants on Gab, a site that attracts extremists.
WASHINGTON • The social media posts are of a distinct type. They hint darkly that the CIA or the FBI are behind mass shootings. They traffic in racist, sexist and homophobic tropes. They revel in the prospect of a "white boy summer."
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U.S. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., stands with a delegation of state elected officials, Hinds County legislators, supervisors, and lawmen, and speaks to reporters about the Hinds County Public Safety Initiative, a project they believe will address crime in Hinds County through temporary judges, assistant district attorneys, and public defenders, Wednesday, May 4, 2022, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Michael Guest campaign airs first negative campaign ad after shocking primary results
JACKSON • Only three days after Republican U.S. Rep. Michael Guest was forced into a runoff election, his campaign is already releasing a campaign advertisement hammering his opponent over his voting record and short residence in Mississippi.
Guest’s campaign produced an ad questioning if voters truly know Michael Cassidy, his GOP opponent who has momentarily captured voters’ attention in central Mississippi by touting his support of former President Donald Trump.
“He just came to Mississippi from Maryland and only registered to vote here last year,” the advertisement said. “As a Navy reserve pilot, Cassidy was grounded and put under an investigation. Mississippi doesn’t need a carpetbagger.”
Cassidy, through a campaign representative, did not respond to a request for comment.
Cassidy’s campaign website says that he was born in Annapolis, Maryland, and grew up in Arlington, Virginia. It’s unclear when he moved to Mississippi, but his website says he has lived in the state for the past few years while working at the Naval Air Station in Meridian.
Voting records do seem to indicate that Cassidy has only participated in one Mississippi election. Records show that the only state election he’s participated in was a special election for a state Senate race last November.
Cassidy’s employment status is unclear. Ultra-conservative news outlet Breitbart published an article quoting Cassidy saying the Navy forbade him to fly a military aircraft over accusations that he used the naval station as a backdrop for campaign photos.
Cassidy told the outlet the photos were actually taken in a civilian airfield and not on a military base.
Cassidy, a newcomer with little statewide name identity, shocked political observers on Tuesday after forcing Guest, an incumbent official with a long history in the state, into a runoff election.
Neither Guest nor Cassidy secured a majority of the votes cast during the first primary election, so they will compete in a runoff election on June 28.
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OKOLONA – The Chickasaw County Board of Supervisors will be looking into some needed repairs for the Okolona Health Department soon.
Delinda Hodge, Director of the Chickasaw County Health Department in Okolona and Houston, came before the board recently to ask that some repairs be made.
“We are just here today to open up discussion on repairs and renovations on the Okolona Health Department,” she said. “We discussed a little about some things in Okolona back when we were doing the Houston renovations, and the general consensus was to finish one thing before we started another. Houston was completed in late 2019, and then the pandemic hit, so it’s just kind of been tabled since then.”
She went on to describe some of the problems they are experiencing.
“The most pressing issue, that we feel right now, are the windows. There is severe wood rot in a majority of the windows, if not all of them. You can stick a pencil through the bottom of the window casement in the main office.”
She said that they were asking to start with the windows, and then moving forward with everything else.
“We are requesting that the board begin the process of repairing or replacing the windows throughout the building, and then open up a discussion of obtaining funds for some other renovations down the road.”
The board asked if they had obtained any prices for the items they presented on their list, which included the windows.
They said that they had not, they were wanting to approach the board first to see how to proceed.
“I would encourage you to get a price on everything you want done and bring it back to us,” said District 3 Supervisor Russell Brooks. “First, we’ll look and see if there are grants, if there are not any grants and we have to do it, I think we will be able to help you either way it goes.”
Okolona Health Department
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Akers, Bettie
Bettie Raye Smith Akers, 83, died June 10, 2022, at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, MS. A native of Prentiss County, she was born on June 1, 1939, to the late Earl Ray and Delta Dee White Smith of Booneville, MS. She graduated as valedictorian of the Booneville High School class of 1956. She earned her bachelor's degree from Blue Mountain College and her master's and doctorate degrees in mathematics from Memphis State University. She taught at Memphis City Schools and then Northeast Mississippi Community College until retiring in 2000. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution for 32 years and the United Daughters of the Confederacy for 21 years. She was a faithful, Christian member of Little Brown Freewill Baptist Church. Visitation will be at McMillian Funeral Home at 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm on Saturday, June 11, 2022. Services will be at 2:00 pm on Sunday, June 12, 2022, at McMillian Funeral Home Chapel with Brother Leonard Ball and Brother Russell Clouse officiating. Burial will follow in the Little Brown Cemetery. Survivors include her son, Sterling Dale Akers, and his wife, Jina, of Booneville; two sisters, Mary Lynn Smith (Bernell) and Janie Gale Clouse (Russell), one brother, Mackie Don Smith (Rhonda), all of Booneville; three grandchildren, Emily Harrison (Shane) of Booneville, Evan Akers (Hayley) of Burnsville and Elizabeth Holley (Easton) of Booneville; one great grandchild, Asher Harrison of Booneville; numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband of 39 years, Freddie Dale Akers, whom she married May 27, 1961; one son, Stephen Ray Akers, in 1987; and one half-brother, Billy Walden Smith (Virginia). Pallbearers will be Jackie Akers, Kenny Geno, Kent Geno, Shane Harrison, Easton Holley, Carter Smith, Jackie Smith, and Marc Smith. Condolences may be left at www.mcmillanfuneralhome.com.
Bettie Raye Smith Akers
Freddie Dale Akers
Asher Harrison
Billy Walden Smith
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Grady Collums and more than 100 other children and adults enjoyed the critters that came to town in front of the library thanks to Blue Springs Safari last Wednesday morning. Besides the llamas, there was an alpaca, goats, sheep, donkeys and other animals for the children to enjoy touching and talking to during the morning. There are three more programs left for kiddies to enjoy which includes a movie day today, Stormin’ Bob Sweanson the singing weatherman on June 22 and Bently Burns the magician on June 29. All these programs start at 10 a.m. at the library. See more photos from the petting safari on page 2A.
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Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco, left, and Southern Miss coach Scott Berry take questions from media prior to Saturday's start of the Hattiesburg Super Regional.
HATTIESBURG — Ole Miss has been on this stage more than a few times. Southern Miss is trying to get to the promised land for the second time in program history. There is a lot at stake over the next couple days for both programs.
But in June, as Rebels coach Mike Bianco says, you can’t change what you’re about.
The Rebels and Golden Eagles play in this weekend’s Hattiesburg super regional for the right to advance to the College World Series. Ole Miss is in its third-straight super regional — the previous two didn’t yield trips to Omaha. Last year, the Rebels fell to Arizona in the Tucson super regional in three games.
Friday was a practice day for the teams though afternoon thunderstorms kept them off the field at Pete Taylor Park. There's a bettter forecast for today's 3 p.m. first pitch. The game will air on ESPNU.
Past super regional experience for Ole Miss might not be of much use come Saturday. And it’s really not supposed to be: Every season is its own beast, Bianco said, and every team has its own personality.
“You are who you are at this point,” Bianco said. “You don’t all of a sudden try to figure out to bunt more, or to hit and run more or do something different with your pitching staff. … Everybody that gets to this point is good enough. You just have to play well this weekend.”
Despite their familiarity — they’ve met 133 previous times, have played twice already this season and met in last season's Oxford regional — the 2022 edition of Ole Miss and Southern Miss are vastly different than previous iterations. Even the midweek versions the teams faced off with earlier this season look different than what will be on the field this weekend, particularly pitching-wise.
“You’re different every year, even if you return players,” Bianco said. “The players are older, they’re hopefully better. But they’re different. They mature, they have different goals, and they’re at different stages of their lives. And so I think that’s one of the unique things about coaching college sports is, every team is different."
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I appreciate the Monroe Journal making this space available for people to express their views on a variety of topics. Unfortunately, there are many news outlets that no longer believe in the Constitutional rights of the freedoms of speech and of the press. I also appreciate those who make the effort to clearly express their views.
I want to know what other people are thinking and why. The validity of one’s views can only be tested by clearly and fairly comparing them with opposing views. Proverbs 19:17 says, “The first to present his case seems right, til another comes forward and questions him.” It isn’t saying which one is right. It is saying hear more than one side of an issue.
A few weeks ago, the Journal carried a letter to the editor in which the writer, Mr. Wilkinson, expressed his opinion of the quality of various presidential administrations and ranked them from those he considered great to the worst.
I will have to admit that I was somewhat surprised by some of his rankings because of the apparent lack of any consistent set of objective standards by which he reached his conclusions. I think I also detected some bias of which we are all guilty of at times.
In thinking about the 46 presidents since the Constitution was adopted in 1787, it suddenly hit me that I had lived under 17 of the 46, or 37 percent, of the total number. Of course, I was not aware of the first two and became aware of the third, FDR, when he was in his second term.
I became interested in things political a long time before I was of voting age. I was not eligible to vote for the president until the election of 1952 but have voted in every presidential election since.
I became interested in things political at a very early age. The earliest political influences were socialistic. The Great Depression had begun in 1929. People were hurting and open to hearing of a system in which everyone was going to be equal and going to have everything they needed or wanted. Who wouldn’t like that?
It would be necessary for government to be in control of everything. The emphasis was on economic issues, and the other complications were not considered. But that is the nature of socialism. Cloud the issues, change the language, foment class warfare and demonize those who disagree with you. Fortunately, other influences came into my life. In the interest of time and space, I will not detail my journey but I will try to clearly state the principles that guide all of my thinking now.
I came to believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God and the only measure of absolute truth and its central message that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only way of salvation. As I studied the Scriptures, I came to realize that my religious views and political views were not in harmony. Something had to change. I chose to bring my political thinking more in line with my religion than do the opposite.
Socialism, at its roots, is atheistic. This is not meant to imply that all socialists are atheists or that any political party is identical to Biblical Christianity. But currently one is clearly friendlier and creates an atmosphere in which the free exercise of religion can flourish.
At one time, both parties shared that view. The current leadership of the Democrat party does not. Note, I said leadership. How do you explain this?
Two other documents come into play: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They are not perfect or on a par with scripture, but in my opinion are the two greatest documents of strictly human origin stating how and why all mankind can and should be politically free. Maybe our problems are the results of the rejection or neglect of the three documents previously valued by most Americans.
John Adams, our second president, said our Constitution was written for a moral and religious people and was inadequate for the governance of any other. Maybe some politicians were not being honest when they took an oath to uphold it.
In 1948, I was in the audience, not more than 15 feet from the speaker, Norman Thomas. At that time, Thomas was the leader of the Socialist Party of America. He said, “the Democrats are implementing our agenda.” Maybe the leaders of the modern Democrat party aren’t really Democrats. You know the saying that if it looks, walks and quacks like a duck it probably is a duck.
Read Isaiah 5:20-23. I know the prophet was dealing with problems at that time. It is a perfect description of the leadership of present-day socialists, alias Democrats. I would like to apply everything I have said thus far to many current problems, but it would be much too long and an abuse of the Journal’s generosity. If the Lord lets me live, I will have the opportunity to do so.
Norman Thomas
Areas of dense morning fog. Partly cloudy. High 88F. Winds light and variable..
Amory seniors honored through inaugural band signing day
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In this file photo from May 19, 2022, a truck drives past the pricing sign for the Love's Truck Stop in Belden with regular gas costing $4.29 a gallon and diesel at $5.48. The nationwide average price for a gallon of gas topped $5 on Saturday, a first. Mississippi had the lowest average at $4.52 a gallon.
NEW YORK • The nationwide average price for a gallon of gasoline has topped $5 for the first time ever.
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Bettie Akers, Booneville
Tanya Davis, Baldwyn
Wesley Hasty, Baldwyn
Charlene Johnson, Iuka
Virginia Newby, Cordova
Perry E. Principi, Myrtle
Jerry Robbins, Myrtle
Charlene Johnson
IUKA - Charlene Johnson, 82, passed away Thursday, June 8, 2022, at her residence in Iuka. Services will be on Sunday, June 12, 2022 beginning at 2:00 p.m. at Ludlam Funeral Home Chapel Iuka, MS. Visitation will be on Sunday prior to funeral service beginning at noon until 2:00 p.m.
MEMO, MAGNOLIA FH LOGO
Virginia Newby
CORDOVA - A Celebration of Life service for Virginia Gayle Newby, 71 of Cordova, TN, will be Wednesday, June 15, 2022 at 2:00 P M at Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Corinth, MS. Bro. Earl McAnally will officiate the service. Visitation will be Wednesday, June 15, 2022 from 1:00 P M until service time at Cornerstone Christian Fellowship. Mrs. Newby passed away Friday, May 27, 2022 at her residence. She was born May 10, 1951 in Ripley, MS to Zachary Taylor Ledbetter and Nellie Kathleen Smith Ledbetter. She was a retired social worker and of the Christian faith. She was a published writer and loved to read. She enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren, loved animals and was good to everyone. Gayle is survived by her husband, Kevin Simonton; her son, Brandon DeVore and wife Terina; her daughters, Jennifer Boudreaux and husband Benjamin and Stephanie Leigh Ooms and husband Zack; 8 grandchildren, Eme DeVore, Ricky DeVore, Isabel Boudreaux, Hope Boudreaux, Gabby Boudreaux, Sam Ooms, Judah Ooms and Nathan Wright; her special niece, Gwen Richardson; several other nieces, nephews, other relatives and a host of friends. She was preceded in death by her father, Zack Ledbetter; her mother, Kathleen Smith Ledbetter; her brother, Sidney Taylor Ledbetter and her sister, Carolyn Richardson. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to keyministry.org. Magnolia Funeral Home has been honored to serve the family of Virginia Gayle Newby.
MEMO, PHOTO, MCMILLAN LOGO
Bettie Akers
BOONEVILLE - Bettie Raye Smith Akers, 83, died June 10, 2022, at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, MS. A native of Prentiss County, she was born on June 1, 1939, to the late Earl Ray and Delta Dee White Smith of Booneville, MS. She graduated as valedictorian of the Booneville High School class of 1956. She earned her bachelor's degree from Blue Mountain College and her master's and doctorate degrees in mathematics from Memphis State University. She taught at Memphis City Schools and then Northeast Mississippi Community College until retiring in 2000. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution for 32 years and the United Daughters of the Confederacy for 21 years. She was a faithful, Christian member of Little Brown Freewill Baptist Church.
Visitation will be at McMillian Funeral Home at 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm on Saturday, June 11, 2022. Services will be at 2:00 pm on Sunday, June 12, 2022, at McMillian Funeral Home Chapel with Brother Leonard Ball and Brother Russell Clouse officiating. Burial will follow in the Little Brown Cemetery.
Survivors include her son, Sterling Dale Akers, and his wife, Jina, of Booneville; two sisters, Mary Lynn Smith (Bernell) and Janie Gale Clouse (Russell), one brother, Mackie Don Smith (Rhonda), all of Booneville; three grandchildren, Emily Harrison (Shane) of Booneville, Evan Akers (Hayley) of Burnsville and Elizabeth Holley (Easton) of Booneville; one great grandchild, Asher Harrison of Booneville; numerous nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 39 years, Freddie Dale Akers, whom she married May 27, 1961; one son, Stephen Ray Akers, in 1987; and one half-brother, Billy Walden Smith (Virginia).
Pallbearers will be Jackie Akers, Kenny Geno, Kent Geno, Shane Harrison, Easton Holley, Carter Smith, Jackie Smith, and Marc Smith.
Condolences may be left at www.mcmillanfuneralhome.com.
MYRTLE - Perry E. Principi, 60, passed away Thursday, June 9, 2022, at his residence in Myrtle. Services will be on Thursday, June 16 at 4 PM at New Albany Funeral & Cremation Care. Visitation will be on Thursday, June 16 from 2 PM to 4 PM at New Albany Funeral & Cremation Care. The staff of New Albany Funeral & Cremation Care invites you to share memories at nafuneralsandcremations.com.
MEMO, UNITED LOGO
Jerry Robbins
MYRTLE - Jerry Wayne Robbins, 77, died Thursday, June 9, 2022 at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. He was born November 4, 1944 in Union County. He retired from Master-Bilt after 43 years. He enjoyed working outdoors and taking care of his property. He enjoyed teaching and helping his grandkids.
United Funeral Service is honored to be entrusted with these arrangements. For online condolences and guest registry, please visit www.unitedfuneralservice.com.
BALDWYN - Tanya Davis, 64, passed away on Thursday, June 9, 2022 at her home. She enjoyed crocheting, cooking and playing video games. She was a homemaker and non-denominational.
Memorial services will be held at Waters Funeral Home, Monday, June 13, 2022 at 11:00 a. m. with Bro. Johnny Bridges officiating.
She is survived by three daughters, Staci Barkley (Brad Trevino) of Nashville, TN, Susie Roye (Timothy) of Baldwyn and Anna Lucas (Joshua) of Ohio; sister, Carol Coy of AZ; brothers, Gordon Coy of CO and Billy Coy of CA; (8) grandchildren and (6) great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents Richard and Lois Terhofter Coy and a daughter, April Davis.
Visitation will be at Waters Funeral Home Monday from 10:00 - 11:00 a. m.
BALDWYN - Wesley Hasty, 80, passed away on June 10, 2022, at North MS Medical Center in Tupelo. Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced later by ASSOCIATED FAMILY FUNERAL & CREMATION CENTER - TUPELO.
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If things aren't going your way on issues such as high gas and food prices, inflation and the hordes flowing across the southern border (Fox News, The Guardian and other news outlets report between 10,000 and 15,000 migrants are on the way and neither Congress nor the Biden administration are doing anything to stop them), the only strategy left is to try and change the subject.
The House Jan. 6 congressional committee is attempting to divert the attention of what concerns most Americans to what some have called the "near destruction of our democracy."
It begins with a primetime performance choreographed by former ABC News president James Goldston, who is assisting the committee to plan the hearings and frame how information is presented. This is more evidence, if any is needed, that the media and liberal politicians are joined at the ideological hip. It recalls Bill Clinton's image makers, Harry and Linda Bloodworth Thomason. Linda Thomason produced the ironically named TV show "Designing Women" and "The Man from Hope" documentary. She once said, "I believe in honest propaganda."
Viewers of the proceedings, which began on Thursday, June 9, should keep in mind that the committee is the work of the highly partisan Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. She refused to allow House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to name Trump-loyal Republicans to the committee citing "...respect for the integrity of the investigation", instead appointing Republicans Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill), both of whom are critical of the former president. These appointees, along with some Democratic members, have already issued public statements about the riot, which is like a jury in a criminal trial announcing its verdict before the proceeding. Unlike a criminal trial, however, there is likely to be little, if any, cross-examination of the witnesses and probably no confrontational questions as we are used to hearing when Democrats question witnesses they don't like.
Democrats won't ask tough questions and neither will Cheney or Kinzinger. Cheney faces an uphill battle for re-election, and Kinzinger is retiring to focus, he says, on Trump's influence on the GOP.
The "fix" seems to be in, meaning that the outcome of these hearings could already be predetermined.
The committee promises that new and shocking information will be revealed, presumably alleging a direct connection between Trump and the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. This might be difficult to prove. Will there be witnesses who claim that Trump motivated them to commit criminal acts by attacking the Capitol, destroying property, injuring Capitol police and threatening to "hang" Vice President Mike Pence? (Four people died as a result of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.) We'll see, but the justice system mostly seems to be holding accountable those who broke the law and so this presentation will be more like a performance. If it were a Broadway show, it might be forced to "close" after opening night. Again, we'll see.
Many viewers might want to know why Congress can't seem to fix any of the country's real problems. That perennial question is why increasing numbers of Americans have grown sour about Washington. They see members of Congress more interested in re-election, in their careers and in perks than in the people they are supposed to represent.
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REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — President Joe Biden could have looked out the window of his limousine on his drive last weekend to his beach home and seen firsthand why he's struggled to contain inflation. Lining Delaware's Coastal Highway as it leads into Rehoboth Beach are miles of strip malls, outlet stores, restaurants, hotels and gas stations. The advertised price of gasoline was approaching $5 a gallon. Vacationgoers had packed into the parking lots of pubs and taquerias. No one's happy inflation is close to a 40-year high, but it'll be hard to bring down prices so long as people keep eagerly spending. Biden needs consumers to pull back just enough so inflation eases, but not so much the economy risks plunging into a recession.
"Everything is going up — look at these prices," Cooper said. "But you still got to live."
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Horne, Michael "Mickey"
Michael Steven "Mickey" Horne, 68, passed away on Saturday, June 11, 2022 at his home. Mickey was born on October 27, 1953 in Amory to Mel, Jr. and Mary Laverne Stevens Horne. A lifelong resident of Smithville, he graduated Smithville High School and he married Patricia Robison on June 17, 1972. Mickey was a heavy equipment operator working for Parham Trucking then Global Contracting in the bentonite mines. His hobbies include NASCAR and watching the History and Discovery channels on television. He enjoyed spending time with his wife of almost 50 years, his family, and the family dog, Sissy. He loved to travel to Joe Wheeler State Park and Gatlinburg. He was a member of Pearce Chapel Freewill Baptist Church. A graveside service will be at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 12, 2022 at Pearce Chapel Cemetery with Bro. Charles Moffett officiating. Cleveland-Moffett Funeral Home is entrusted with the arrangements. In addition to his wife, Patricia Horne, he is survived by one son, Michael Clint Horne (Rebecca) of Smithville; two daughters, Tracy Colburn (Ronnie) and Bree Morris all of Smithville; one sister, Kathy Gainey (Caston) of Smithville; 5 grandchildren, Gunnar Clark (Ashley), Dylan Colburn, Keelee Clark, Zoey Horne, and Wyatt Horne; a host of nieces and nephews; and his mother-in-law, Elisebith Robison of Smithville. He was preceded in death by his parents; one daughter, Jennifer Horne; and father-in-law, W.C. Robison. Pallbearers will be Terry Young, John Lay, John Comer, Phil Goodwin, Bill Tacker, Michael Morris, Reid Morris. Visitation will be from 1 until 3 p.m. at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to the Pearce Chapel Cemetery. Condolences may be shared with the family at clevelandmoffettfuneralhome.com
Michael Clint Horne
Elisebith Robison
W.c. Robison
Jennifer Horne
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This photo, provided by Coastal Mississippi, shows the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Ocean Springs.
By WARREN KULO, The Mississippi Press
OCEAN SPRINGS • On Memorial Day, a ceremony was held at the Mississippi Vietnam Veterans Memorial in honor of both the national holiday and in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the memorial's completion.
For many years, however, the memorial was largely neglected. With the committee charged with the memorial's upkeep having dwindled down to just 3-to-4 overwhelmed members, the memorial sat dirty and unkempt, with repairs needed in places.
Initially planned for a parcel of land in Biloxi, the memorial site was moved to Ocean Springs after it was determined the memorial's final design wouldn't fit on the Biloxi property. In May 1994, the memorial committee and City of Ocean Springs signed an agreement to build the memorial on four acres on the civic center grounds.
"That's absolutely correct," said a longtime memorial committee member, who asked not to be identified. "They put up a few signs out on the interstate to direct people to the memorial. It took us seven years to get those put up. Then, after (Hurricane) Katrina took them down, it took another five years to get them replaced. So, yeah, the state hasn't been real cooperative."
In addition, the committee member said efforts to get local Veterans of Foreign Wars or American Legion chapters to assist proved fruitless. "For whatever reason, they would not help with the memorial committee. I have no idea why," he said.
Nor was any help coming from the federal government, the same federal government which sent to Vietnam the 667 Mississippians whose photos adorn the memorial's walls.
"I did have one (federal) elected official say he was going to get the committee some money for the memorial," the committee member said. "I don't know if he had a slush fund or something, but it never panned out. I don't depend a lot on the federal people."
Ocean Springs alderman Rob Blackman was contacted roughly two years ago to visit the memorial site and "see how neglected the site had become," Blackman said. "I hate to use the word neglect, but that's what it was."
"Anybody who would help, really," Blackman said. "It took us about a year, but we finally got it back in decent shape. Now the city is taking the lead, because it's on our property. Our parks & recreation department has stepped up to handle groundskeeping and I'm going to make sure we have money budgeted for pressure washing each year, so we don't let it get in the condition it was in."
But these initial efforts, while needed, aren't enough. The memorial still needs numerous repairs. There are cracks in the interior flooring, discoloration in places, and other damage. Blackman has turned to state officials in the hopes of obtaining the state's financial support for the memorial for the first time since that initial donation 25 years ago.
Blackman said he's spoken with state Reps. Kevin Felsher and Hank Zuber about finding funding "to help us in the future keep the memorial on the right path."
Perhaps most important to the memorial's future, however, is the participation of a younger generation of veterans who are passionate about the memorial.
"We had a meeting with a whole group of veterans who all want to be involved," Blackman said. "A younger generation of veterans has stepped up and their help will be invaluable."
"It certainly is," he said when asked if it was heartening to see new volunteers coming in. "It's nice to see other people coming in and getting involved -- and other Vietnam veterans, as well.
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Learning to trust that tiny voice inside my head
A tiny voice lives deep inside my mind, and I’ve ignored it so many times – much to my regret.
The louder its cry, the more I want to silence it. Because I don’t trust that voice. And I don’t trust it because I don’t trust anything about myself. I am likely the most uncertain, indecisive, self-doubting, paranoid person you could ever meet.
Everything around me feels like an illusion. My own senses feel like insufficient sources of information. My own knowledge seems hopelessly flawed. I feel my own morals will betray me at any moment. Sometimes dreams feel more real than reality, although memories of both tend to get fuzzy rather quickly.
Does any of this make sense? I don’t know what triggered this particular bit of introspection. Perhaps it was an article I just read regarding what optical illusions tell us about the human eye and how it processes information.
Dr. Bruno Laeng, a psychology professor, told The New York Times, “The information we get from the world is quite indeterminate. The brain goes into a constant guessing mode, we sort of have to come up with the best solution, but there are several possibilities for the same type of input.”
That phrase, “Constant guessing mode.” If that doesn’t describe nearly every interaction my mind has with all the stimuli being thrown at it, I don’t know what does. I’ve been guessing my whole life, often badly, probably because I don’t give that tiny voice nearly enough credit.
My ex-wife would always tell me to “fake it” if I didn’t know what I was doing. She was always good at that. I could never figure it out.
I’m always scared of doing something the wrong way or having the wrong info or believing the wrong things. I’ll often re-check something five or six times just to make sure I have it right, because I don’t trust my memory – which is admittedly horrible.
Best I can figure, I am overwhelmed by the amount of information my brain must process. I am also overwhelmed by all the information I know is out there but haven’t yet encountered.
Let’s take, for example, my convictions. As I’ve gathered more data over the years, I’ve come to realize that not everything I believed growing up was correct. This tends to happen when a person expands their world beyond family and hometown.
What results – or it did with me – is a fairly deep knowledge of an issue from multiple angles. You know the arguments for and against, and you can understand the logic behind those arguments, even if you disagree. Because a person’s belief system is shaped not only by what they’re taught or by their environment, but also by their experiences – especially when those experiences happen outside a person’s familiar moral framework, thus blurring their lifelong point of reference.
A personal example: My relationship to the Confederate flag. (Oh boy, here we go.)
It was everywhere when I was growing up in Mississippi and Louisiana. I don’t recall my parents ever expressing an opinion about it, and it was as common and normal in my social circles as Mickey Mouse watches and Air Jordans.
When I was in college, I had a big rebel flag hanging in my dorm room. A couple of Black basketball players were hanging out in my room, and one asked, “What’s up with the flag?” I muttered something about “heritage” or whatever, because I had zero understanding of what that flag really meant and what it symbolized to Black people.
I’ve since educated myself, and one of the few convictions I do feel certain about is that the Confederate flag has no place in this society outside of a museum. A tiny voice had been telling me this for years, but I didn’t listen. Once I did, I improved as a person.
If only everything could become so clear for me.
Air Jordans
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Q. My wife and I are on Baby Step 3, and we were talking the other day about how our home, travel trailer and cars have appreciated recently. Everything is paid for except the home, but we were wondering if we should increase the amount of insurance coverage on these items since they have skyrocketed in value.
A. Yes! And you should make it a habit to review all your insurance coverage once a year.
With most homeowners insurance policies you have a stated amount of coverage. Some policies have a “cheat” that allows you an extra 5 or 10%, maybe even 20% in some cases. But if you’ve got a $300,000 policy on a house you bought five years ago, and it has appreciated to $450,000 then burns to the ground, you’re screwed. The only thing dumber than not having enough insurance to replace belongings like that is having no insurance at all.
Lots of times, in the old days, if you bought a car or homeowners policy, it covered your car or home regardless– even if they had gone up in value. Then, when some insurance companies got absolutely hammered after some events like Hurricane Katrina, they stopped doing that. They stopped covering actual replacement value, and started covering only the specified amount on the policy. Today, it can be tough to even find replacement value coverage on houses. And if you do, it’s crazy expensive.
When it comes to your home especially, you need to have a policy equal to the value of the home, and you should revisit your coverage and your home’s value every single year. You have to be vigilant about things like that because your insurance company won’t be.
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It's a good time for teens to find jobs
Teens looking for work will find it, as long as employers are willing to hire them. Unemployment is under 4% overall, and the rate for teens 16-19 was just over 10% in April, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to the Associated Press, today's level of teen employment isn’t close to what it used to be. In August 1978, 50% of America’s teenagers were working. Around 2000, teenage employment went into a decade-long slide. In June 2010, during the agonizingly slow recovery from the 2007-2009 Great Recession, teenage employment bottomed at 25% before slowly rising again as the economy recovered.
The pandemic didn't do any favors for them either as businesses closed, cut back hours and limited contact for some time.
But teens can find jobs at restaurants, grocery stores, retailers and more if they look. And internships are also available with manufacturers, hospitals and other health care facilities.
Allow me to brag for a moment on my son.
He started working at a sandwich shop at 16 and continued when he started at ICC following his graduation from Tupelo High in 2020.
He is majoring in graphic art and design and has a dream to work at Disney, and in particular the famous Walt Disney Imagineering. So when he heard about the Disney College Program, he jumped at the chance.
The Disney College Program is a national internship program operated by the Disney Programs division of The Walt Disney Company, located at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando and the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. The program recruits college students (ages 18 and older) of all majors for a semester-long paid internship program working at either the Orlando or Anaheim resorts, with the option of extending to almost a full year.
He applied last spring but was declined. Some 50,000 students apply each term and only 4,000 to 5,000 are invited. I told him not to be discouraged, to try again. And last fall, he got the email he had hoped for – an invitation to DCP.
He started in Orlando in late January and was supposed to come home this week. But in April, he was offered an extension and now will be there until January 2023.
Is he immersed in graphic art and design? Not at all. He's working full-time at the Art of Animation resort, but in hospitality. He's also worked at EPCOT, Typhoon Lagoon, Port Orleans and ESPN. And he loves it (for the most part).
Let's be honest: Disney is using cheaper labor and not having to pay benefits to them. But for the teens, they don't really think about that. They're working at Disney. They get to go to the parks. They're earning some money.
But he also is learning about the renowned Disney way of doing things. He's behind the scenes seeing how Disney runs its business and operations, like marketing, entertainment and costuming. He's learning about the operations and management of the resorts and the hospitality side of the business. They aren't classes per se, but he's learning through simply going to work. He has leaders and coordinators – the equivalent of managers and supervisors – showing him the way.
He's also been introduced to the six-day workweek and overtime. And with his rent automatically taken out weekly to pay for his Disney-provided apartment, leaving him with little remaining, he's discovered that adulting is fun.
Will he land a job at Disney after his internship? Perhaps. If not, he'll have learned quite a lot that he can put to use elsewhere.
Not everyone can or wants to work at Disney, and that's fine. But having teens work at an early age to develop life skills, as well as learn some financial responsibility, is invaluable.
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Jimmie and Pam Lessel of the Lone Star community in Union County will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary Saturday, June 18, 2022, at 2 p.m. at Center Hill Baptist Church, 290 Lessel Road, in Ecru. The Lessels were married June 23, 1972, in Union County. Friends and family are welcome to join the celebration.
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Gardenias bloom only once a year and for a very short time.
Margaret Gratz
Gardenia's creamy bloom, exotic perfume are unforgettable
By MARGARET GRATZ Contributing Columnist
In late spring, in the remnants of a garden behind an office that was once a home in an older part of town, there is a gardenia bush that has steadfastly bloomed for decades. Through the years and as the month of May gives way to June, this faithful shrub, “the office gardenia,” is laden with creamy, white blossoms that are truly beautiful, but it is the heady fragrance of these flowers that first garners one’s attention. Most of the year this unassuming, evergreen shrub largely goes unnoticed and unappreciated. Thriving on seemingly benign neglect, “the office gardenia,” without fail, produces a plethora of blooms, and its perfume wafts about the garden and permeates the air.
Like many Southern gardeners, my grandmother had a gardenia bush, but she always referred to it as Cape Jasmine. This name was derived from the mistaken idea that the flower originated in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope. In actuality, this shrub only made a brief stop there on its way to England. Gardenias are native to Asia, and they have been grown in China for more than 1,000 years. As with most beloved, cherished plants from Old World gardens, Cape Jasmine, the gardenia, eventually found its way to the gardens of the South in the New World where it obligingly tolerated the heat and humidity that so many other plants found oppressive. The gardenia is named for Dr. Alexander Garden from Charleston, South Carolina, who was a Scottish physician and botanist who sent a specimen to Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus who forever formalized the naming of plants, hence the botanical name Gardenia jasminoides.
There are hundreds of species of gardenia, and today, there are numerous cultivars, including dwarf varieties which are ideal for small gardens. However, regardless of sentiment or practicality, the old-fashioned gardenia, Gardenia jasminoides, is still the variety that is most coveted by gardeners.
According to some horticulturists, gardenias can be somewhat temperamental to grow. For best results, it is recommended that the shrub be planted in a sunny location but not one with direct, hot afternoon sun, and it requires consistent moisture but then not too much. The soil needs to be acidic and amended with organic matter. And yet, the gardenias I have encountered have been long-lived and apparently have survived without a lot of pampering.
All flowers are ephemeral, but gardenias, as cut flowers, are perhaps more delicate than would be desired by some floral designers. But the flowers are so lovely, and the fragrance is so heavenly, that no matter how fleeting, they add a touch of nostalgia, romance, and beauty to almost any setting. Even after the flowers and fragrance begin to fade, one is reluctant to part with them.
The gardenia, or Cape Jasmine, only blooms once a year and for only a brief time, but the flower and its exotic perfume are unforgettable. There was a time when corsages and boutonnières were de rigueur for special occasions such as proms, piano recitals, weddings, and graduations, and frequently it was a gardenia that adorned the prom dress or tuxedo. You may have forgotten the etude you played for the piano recital or the date you had for the prom more than just a few years ago, but chances are you will forever recall the scent of the gardenia. And once again, “the office gardenia” valiantly bloomed. In some celestial garden, the gardener who planted this gardenia so very long ago must be smiling.
THE EARTH LADY by Margaret Gratz appears once a month in the Daily Journal.
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FRIDA is 2 1/2-year-old spayed female dog. This blue American Pit Bull/Terrier mix was transferred to the TLHS from another rescue. Frida's adoption number is 011404Q.
RADAR is a 2-month-old male shorthair cat. This tabby and four other kittens were found as strays in Saltillo with no mother. Radar's adoption number is 043003Q.
IF YOU’D LIKE TO PROVIDE Frida or Radar with a good home, call the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society at (662) 205-4221 or stop by 2795 Cliff Gookin Blvd. Shelter hours are 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday. Adoption fees for dogs and puppies range from $100 to $175. Adoption fees for cats and kittens range from $80 to $100. This includes one round of shots, worming, spaying/neutering. Please bring the photo of the animal you wish to adopt.
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Dot Courson
"On Hidden Creek"
Courson works on an oil painting in her studio in Pontotoc.
"A Beautiful Day"
"Snow Shadows"
Courson works on a painting in her studio in Pontotoc.
Courson's place in Pontotoc serves as both an art studio and an art gallery.
Courson mixes oil paint on a palette.
Pontotoc artist captures landscapes, memories on canvas
PONTOTOC – Artist Dot Courson considers herself a lifelong learner, probably because her early education was limited. She didn't begin school until the second grade, and after eighth grade, she left to get married.
"When you don't go to school, your mind has to be somewhere," said Courson, 69. "You become creative."
Even as young as 5, Courson was drawn to art.
"The smell of color crayons was just something that set me off like a recess bell," she said. "It was an immediate reaction."
Her father is the one who taught her how to draw.
"He was very talented," she said. "He was deaf and tongue-tied, but I was so proud of him. He showed me perspective. We were both night owls, and we'd sit at the kitchen table with a paper sack between us. He'd draw our house, or a car or a toy."
Courson's father worked long hours in a factory and her mother had some mental issues, so Courson was put in foster care at an early age.
"I married at age 16 to get out of foster homes," Courson said. "At 18, I went to work in a hospital as a nurses' aid, and I got my GED. At the hospital, they wanted me to go for my RN, but I didn't think I could do it. The hospital paid for me to go to nursing school."
Courson earned her degree as a registered nurse, and then went on to get her bachelor's in nursing from Mississippi University for Women, and her master's from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
"I really, really worked hard for that RN degree, and I saw that as an opportunity to better myself," she said. "I just kept going."
While she was in college, Courson took every art elective she could, and even enrolled in a few art classes. She bought some art supplies of her own and began trying to learn on her own.
"I was working as an artist part time, but people didn't know me as an artist," she said. "They knew me as a nurse."
While working as a nurse administrator at a home-health agency based out of Columbus, Courson starting taking private art lessons at night from Mississippi artist Billy Kirk, who had studied with master artists.
"I just wanted to learn technique," she said. "I hunger for knowledge because of that early lack of education."
Kirk started her with watercolors, then acrylics, then oils.
"When I got to oil, I didn't ever go back to anything else," she said. "I love painting with a palette knife."
The first painting Courson ever sold was a still life of flowers. It went to a beautician who was in Courson's home, saw the oil painting, and liked it. She sold the first portrait she ever painted to the model who posed for it.
"I took the money I made and bought more supplies," she said. "It was like feeding my habit."
When Courson and her husband, Jackie, whom she married in 1986, built their home in Pontotoc, she used a bonus room upstairs as her studio.
In 2017, they added a studio and gallery behind the home so she could paint, teach workshops, and display her art.
"I teach one or two workshops a year," she said. "My desire now, though, is just to paint, and not teach. You don't stay the same as an artist – you morph over time."
Courson considers herself a Southern landscape artist. She paints scenes from the woods around her home, from places she's been and childhood memories, and sometimes purely from imagination.
"I still like to paint cotton in the Delta," she said. "That was such a special time in my life, falling asleep on the back of a cotton wagon at the end of the day, or laying on a cotton sack between rows in the field, smelling the dirt. That's what I think about when Im creating my work. I know a lot of people relate to that.
"My paintings aren't playful, there are no shocking colors," she said. "They represent a time of day, a place, a time. Many of them are nostalgic. I used to be apologetic about that, but not anymore."
Courson works two to four hours a day, four days a week in her studio. Some canvases are as small as 5-by-7 inches; others are as large as 60-by-48 inches; but the most common is 30-by-40 inches.
"Starting a painting is really quick," she said. "I can get 90% of one done in just a few hours. It's the finishing that takes a while. I spend the most time on the last 10%."
Lately, Courson has been trying an artistic style called Tonalism, which was started in the 1880s and made popular by artists like George Inness and James McNeill Whistler.
"I'm kind of in that mood right now," she said. "It's reduced detail, a narrow range of value. You go for more of an emotional impact. The color values are limited, and there's not a lot of contrast. Since COVID, I've become more uninhibited. I'm not scared a bit to go out on a limb and try things. I'm doing things people don't usually associate with me."
But Courson always stays true to one thing in her art: She paints what she knows.
"I don't care about going to France or Italy to paint," she said. "Why on earth would I want to paint France? I don't love France. It's not part of me. There's something so authentic about painting what I know and what I love."
What: Dot Courson Studio & Gallery
Where: 63 Hidden Creek, Pontotoc
Time: Open by appointment
Info: Call (662) 617-3100 or find her at www.dotcourson.com
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Donald Trump lost the 2020 election
That moment of cognitive disconnect caps a video played during Thursday night's televised hearing by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection last year. That committee has multiple missions: to determine the causes, to establish a record of events, to evaluate the performance of law enforcement.
But that video — and, more to the point, that moment at the end where Trump lauds the "love" of a mob ransacking the seat of government — suggests another purpose: Inviting Republicans to return to our shared reality.
The vast majority, of course, seceded from that reality long ago. Cocooned within a media omniplex whose prime directive is to shield them from what they would rather not know, they have become intellectual cripples unable to cope with even inarguable truths.
Especially this one: Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, fair and square. It wasn't even close.
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By SCOTT WALLER Guest columnist
Last year, the Mississippi Economic Council conducted 51 small group sessions on a variety of policy issues impacting our economy during our annual tour. Without question, the number one issue people said their businesses and organizations faced was a lack of skilled professionals. These conversations and research led to MEC releasing its “Securing Mississippi’s Future” report, which highlighted one of the five goals to grow Mississippi’s economy and population as being to increase the number of highly skilled professionals in the state.
Unfortunately, as historic pandemic-related workforce shortages continue to plague America, our STEM industries have struggled. The demand for high-skilled workers in STEM-focused sectors is steadily rising. For example, job openings across the U.S. for electrical engineers within the semiconductor industry are up 78%, which is essential to our country’s use of electronics. This impacts numerous businesses in Mississippi that depend on a strong supply chain for semiconductors.
Jim Barksdale recently wrote an op-ed highlighting uber-successful American citizens such as Elon Musk, who came to the United States as foreign students but were given an opportunity to legally immigrate and build their careers here. Yet, our broken immigration system is making this increasingly difficult. We are working against our own interests.
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Tupelo Mayor Todd Jordan helpss Tupelo Public Works and Tupelo Park & Recreation employees power wash the F-105 Thunderchief that is on display at Veterans Park in this May 23, 2022, photo.
We appreciate that Mayor Todd Jordan, as he said, "like(s) to get out, get a little dirty and sweaty..." The mayor is definitely a visible presence at events throughout the city. He does spend a lot of time out and about, meeting with people and waving the city flag, so to speak.
Because of this, the mayor is about to get a $50,000 private bathroom, something we cannot appreciate.
Jordan told the City Council that he doesn't always "have time to go home and freshen up" before he has to get to other meetings where he presumably should not be "a little dirty and sweaty." This bathroom will save "him having to go home and waste time and gas.”
Perhaps that is the case, though it is hard to believe that Jordan would waste more than about 30 minutes roundtrip between City Hall and his home. And while gas is no doubt expensive right now, he would have to rack up a lot of miles to justify spending anywhere close to $50,000 on a bathroom.
The idea of a private bathroom for the mayor — one with a shower, heck, even a bathtub and a small area to hang some clothes — is not objectionable on its own. What is objectionable is spending $50,000 on it.
If the reason for it being so expensive is inflation, then the prudent thing to do for a project that is clearly not a critical need is to wait until prices drop. However, we cannot fathom how inflation alone would drive the cost of a simple bathroom to $50,000.
More likely the location, the amenities and the required structural changes are what is driving the cost so high. Jordan argued that the cost was being held down because it was adjacent to existing public bathrooms, which makes us wonder even more what you get for a $50,000 bathroom.
Then there is the fact that there is already a non-public staff bathroom just down the hall from the mayor's office. It lacks a shower, but perhaps city officials should look at expanding that facility to include a shower. It would, theoretically, be less expensive. It would not be part of the mayor's personal office for his sole use, but it would still save the time and gas of which the mayor spoke.
Another alternative would be to find a different location within City Hall for a bathroom with a shower. For $50,000, perhaps you could include multiple showers in the right location. After all, other City Hall officials are out and about, too. We all know what hot, humid Mississippi summers do to a person. Spending $50,000 on a facility that could be used by more hard-working City Hall staff makes a lot more sense.
At the end of the day, it just seems absolutely wasteful to spend $50,000 — or anything close to that — on a private bathroom.
Chief Financial Officer Kim Hanna said the money for the project comes from excess funds earmarked for capital improvements. It seems that there are more pressing needs for the city. Nevertheless, if this is what the City Council wants, then so be it.
But there most definitely should be a way to add a shower to City Hall for far less than $50,000. If there isn't, then the City Council should rescind their approval and move on to other projects — because no shower is worth that much, especially when they are spending taxpayer money.
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When it comes to severe weather outbreaks, some days the CodeRED calls do get kind of monotonous but we don’t completely ignore them. When it comes to breaking and entering cases, we accept they’re a normal way of life and don’t pay as much attention until they happen in our neighborhoods.
I’m sure mild earthquakes and fatal interstate pileups garner the same desensitized response other places they’re prone to happen but until one of them has a direct impact on someone, people aren’t quite as concerned.
It’s really easy to be self-absorbed in life with everything everyone has to do and wants to do in the course of a day but at some point in our lives, that probably wasn’t us. When there are 100 things of your own to contend with, it’s easy to completely forget to check on somebody recovering from sickness or going through the loss of a loved one.
For the ones who haven’t completely lost that certain sense of character, it’s easy to feel guilty missing out on those little ways of outreach.
There are lots of bad things that happen throughout the world every single day throughout the year, and it’s hard to keep track of what’s what. If you don’t pay attention to the news, it’s even harder to know what’s going on outside of our own little worlds.
Somebody can tell you about a military invasion or a tsunami on the other side of the world, but it may not resonate as much as a mass shooting or hurricane striking on the other side of the state.
If we’re familiar with a place or a person, it’s that much easier to show sympathy. At some point in our lives, before childhood innocence wore off, we cared a lot more.
Back in the ‘80s, “We Are the World” was easy to get stuck in your head, and the message behind it – starving people in Africa – was unavoidable. In talking with a friend about it a while back, she recalled crying as a second-grader learning about that famine in school.
To help reinforce an Ethiopian crisis then, there was the Live Aid concert series in Philadelphia and London. During the same era, Farm Aid was launched to support the farm families of America. Through the years, I’ve listened to the songs in reflection of the Sept. 11 attacks and seen the telethons raising money for those impacted by natural disasters.
No matter how common bad things may be, TV networks and celebrity call takers are going to pull together to help out with important causes. No matter how common bad things may be, somebody you know is going to care.
You take a shooting at a school in Texas a couple of weeks ago, and City of Aberdeen employees respond by organizing a prayer vigil. You take a refugee crisis in Ukraine, and Vacation Bible Schools respond by raising funds to help. For the kids who contribute, this is a lesson in helping others that will help develop character for a lifetime.
Back in the ‘80s, there were a lot of lessons to be learned while studying tragedies happening in places we’d never been to people we’ll never know. The same sense of caring still living with us today can be chalked up to a little bit of childhood innocence hanging on all these years later.
Since it’s such a common sight, it’s hard to know why the American flags are at half-staff any given day anymore. However, it’s not hard to figure out there’s someone out there hurting because of them being lowered.
We live where we live for a reason, and one plus of living in small town Mississippi is there’s still a sense of caring for others ingrained in plenty of people. People we know live out their own ministries as small as sending birthday cards or as big as traveling to South America every summer for mission trips. This is the life a lot of people live.
In having a conversation with somebody a couple of weeks ago, we agreed there are times that test us and make us take stock in ourselves and who we’ve become. We don’t always like what certain situations push us to be. At least there are times when we realize that we need to make a change.
Who we are isn’t always who we once were or who our second-grade selves imagined us to be. As easily as this world, its conflicts, its natural disasters and its tragedies can wear on us, it can also mold our character.
You can embrace it and be the person you’re proud of being or just completely ignore it and not care. Be the person you want to be but be the person you can feel comfortable looking at in the mirror.
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Mark 12:41-44: “And Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much.” And there came a certain widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And He called until Him his disciples and saith unto them, ‘Verily I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance but she of her want did cast in all she had, even all her living.”
Jesus was sitting in the court of the women where there were 13 collecting boxes called the trumpets because they were so shaped. Each of them was for a special purpose, to buy corn or wine or oil for the sacrifices in daily expenses of the temple.
Many people threw in quite considerable contributions. Then came a widow. She flung in two mites, which means a thin one, and Jesus said that tiny contributions were greater than all the others, for all the others had thrown in what they could spare easily enough and still have plenty left, while the widow had flung in everything that she had.
Giving to be real giving must be sacrificial. It is never the amount of the gift that matters but the cost of the gift to the giver. It is not the size but the sacrifice of the gift. There are few people who will do without their pleasures to give a little more to the work of God. It may as well be the sign of the decadence of the church and the failure of our Christianity that gifts have to be coated out of church people.
Often they will not give at all unless they get something for their money in the way of entertainment or of goods. There can be few of us who can read their story without shame.
The woman might have kept one coin. It would not have been much but it would have been something but she gave everything she had. There is a great symbolic truth here. It is our tragedy that there is so often some part of our lives, some part of our activities, some part of ourselves which we do not give to Christ. Somehow there is always something we hold back. We rarely make the final sacrifice and the final surrender.
It is a strange and lovely thing that the person whom the New Testament and Jesus hands down to history as a pattern of generosity was a person who gave the gift of the two mites. We may feel that we have not much in the way of material gifts to give to Christ but if we put all that we have at His disposal, He can do things with it and with us that are beyond our imaginings.
I’ve just turned 84 years of age and I’ve found that “God has for us under the counter more than He puts out on display.” Luke 6:38.
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Ole Miss freshman pitcher Hunter Elliott.
HATTIESBURG – At one point fairly early on in the 2022 season, Ole Miss sat atop the college baseball world.
It wasn’t too surprising a development, given nearly the entire lineup from 2021’s super regional team returned. Its lofty preseason top-five ranking was warranted, and when the Rebels jumped up to No. 1, it appeared a special season might be in store.
Just a few weeks later, however, the Rebels were unranked entirely, on the wrong side of the NCAA tournament bubble and in the midst of a devastating skid.
But the goal players spoke openly of at preseason media days in February — to take the program to the College World Series for the first time in eight years — didn’t waver. And even when things seemed bleak and on the verge of spiraling out of control, Ole Miss held it together, sweating out Selection Monday as the last team in the entire tournament field.
Now, in the middle of June, the dream that senior first baseman Tim Elko and his teammates had in the winter rests neatly in the palm of their hands. The Rebels are headed to Omaha.
Freshman Hunter Elliott pitched a gem on the biggest stage of his young college career, striking out a career-high 10 batters over 7 1-3 scoreless innings while outpitching Southern Miss ace Tanner Hall. The Rebels took down No. 11 Southern Miss 5-0 in the clinching game of the Hattiesburg super regional.
With the victory, Ole Miss (37-22) clinched a trip to the College World Series, which begins in Omaha, Nebraska on Friday. It is the sixth trip to the College World Series in program history. The Rebels are a perfect 5-0 in the 2022 NCAA Tournament despite playing every game on the road.
A highly-anticipated matchup in late March with Tennessee — Ole Miss was No. 1 in several polls, and the Volunteers were atop the Perfect Game poll — was the start of a strange stretch. Tennessee convincingly swept the Rebels at Swayze Field, though losing to the Volunteers itself wasn’t necessarily all that telling; Tennessee has convincingly been the No. 1 team in the country since.
But following a series win at Kentucky the next weekend, Ole Miss proceeded to lose four-straight SEC weekend series, one of which was a sweep against Alabama at home. There were also devastating late-inning losses at South Carolina, Arkansas and at home against Mississippi State.
Ole Miss rallied late, winning eight of its last 10 regular season games before falling in the opening round of the SEC Tournament to Vanderbilt. The Rebels spent Memorial Day on pins and needles, just hoping to hear their name called on ESPN2.
They got that chance, and they made the most of it.
As the No. 3 seed in the Coral Gables regional, Ole Miss opened its postseason with ghosts of postseasons past: Arizona, the very team that ended the 2021 Rebels’ Omaha dreams. Ole Miss dispatched the Wildcats 7-4, setting up a matchup with No. 1 seed Miami, the sixth-ranked team in the field. The Rebels won a 2-1 pitcher’s duel over the Hurricanes, which brought Ole Miss face-to-face with Arizona in the regional final.
Ole Miss won its second game with the Wildcats 22-6, propelling the Rebels to Hattiesburg for the program’s third super regional in a row.
The Rebels won 10-0 in the opener at Pete Taylor Park in a game that nearly swung 180 degrees in the Golden Eagles’ (47-19) favor after a potential go-ahead grand slam was confirmed to be a foul ball.
Sunday’s game was another pitcher’s duel. But, as has been the case all season, Elliott wasn’t phased by the stakes or the circumstance. The only trouble he ever really found himself in was the second inning, where a runner got to third following a single and botched pickoff move. That Southern Miss runner never made it to home plate — which was a theme the entire afternoon.
The Rebels finally did damage on Hall in the bottom of the fifth, after a double from senior centerfielder Justin Bench put runners on second and third with one out. Sophomore shortstop Jacob Gonzalez hit a ball that took an awkward hop over first baseman Chris Sargent, who lost the ball in the sun. The run scored and left runners on the corners, and Bench eventually scored on a passed ball. Senior leftfielder Kevin Graham capped off the inning with a single to right to drive in Gonzalez and make it 3-0.
That was more than enough for Elliott, who didn’t give up his second hit of the afternoon until the eighth inning. He also did not walk a batter. He left the game with runners on first and second with one out in the eighth. Sophomore Josh Mallitz entered the game and struck out the first batter he faced, walked the second to load the bases and got Carson Paetow to pop up to shallow center to end the inning.
Sophomore T.J. McCants hit a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth to put the finishing touches on the Ole Miss win.
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Pictured is the back section of the community house that was being discussed.
HOUSTON – The Houston Board of Aldermen heard a proposal from one of their own, Ward 3 Alderman Matt Callahan, pertaining to the community house, which is in his ward.
“I have been working and talking with Caleb [Tedder], and I would like the board to see if we can get some quotes on that community house and turning the back part, the shooting range, into a couple of bathrooms and a concession stand,” he said.
He said that there have been some investors who are looking to potentially spruce up that park with new tennis courts, and he would like to see how much it would cost to prepare the area for that.
“We have some investors aiming to donate, and we were talking to them about some tennis courts, and I just wanted to see how much we are looking at, and once we get our audits together, come back. I talked to Senator [Ben] Suber, and there is some money for parks. So, I would like to get some quotes and see how much money it would take to make the community house some bathrooms and a concession stand and see if we can’t get some tennis courts.”
He said that he wanted to start the brainstorming phase of the project so that they would be able to proceed when the time came.
Other members of the board did not seem to have a problem with the idea, however, Ward 1 Alderman John Fred Lancaster did voice a bit of concern.
“I am not against us doing something over there, it just seems like we are getting the cart before the horse. As far as concession stands, we don’t have anything right now to build concession stands for over there.”
However, Callahan reiterated the donation situation.
“The point is, there are some people that are wanting to donate equipment for three tennis courts over there, if we do that.”
The board did not take any official action on the matter.
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Speedy Spruill, left, of American Legion Post 26 prepares to retire an American flag during last year's Flag Day retirement ceremony. Also pictured are Polly Grimes and Faye Haywood of the Tombigbee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Ann Johnson of Auxiliary Unit 26.
RAY VAN DUSEN/MONROE JOURNAL FILE
ABERDEEN – Worn and tattered American flags will be properly retired June 14 with a ceremony at American Legion Post 26 at 7 p.m.
Last year, American Legion Post 26 hosted a flag retirement ceremony, which included the debut of its firepit, built specifically for the purpose of retiring flags.
“This is the proper way to retire worn or used flags that are beyond repair. It is done in a controlled environment with dignity, so as not to give the impression of protest or desecration. Flags are not to be cut up in any way. They are to be left whole and retired whole,” said Diane Belue, president of the Mississippi American Legion Auxiliary.
Worn American flags collected from Aberdeen’s cemeteries ahead of Memorial Day will be among those retired during the ceremony.
“Flags should be replaced when they become faded or torn beyond repair,” Belue said.
A collection box is set up at the legion, which is located at 523 Hwy. 145 N for anyone needing to drop off flags in need of retiring at any point.
Diane Belue
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Work continues as crews renovate the former Fred’s discount store building to become a municipal office. The New Albany Light, Gas and Water Department will move into the front half of the building and the New Albany Police Department will be in the back half. To a large degree, the work will be paid for through user fees. This past week a huge crane was brought in to lift the new air conditioning units onto the roof and officials say the building should be ready for use this fall. It has not been decided what the current police and utility buildings will be used for after the move.
Mainly sunny. Hot and humid. High 94F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..
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Revived ‘Green New Deal’ would multiply our economic pain
President Biden’s tax-and-spend bill is regrettably back on the table. Last December, the president’s plan seemed all but defeated when two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, joined all Republicans in opposing the bill — with Manchin declaring it “dead.”
Yet, Manchin is once again engaging Democrats on a plan to revive the Biden bill, even as our economy suffers under the weight of Biden-caused inflation. If Democrats pass this tax-and-spend proposal, we can expect even more inflation and economic pain to come.
Details on the Democrat's bill are still emerging, but Manchin has signaled his desire to roll back the Republican-passed tax cuts of 2017, which led to massive economic growth. The West Virginia senator wants to raise taxes on job creators from 21% to 25%, making American companies less globally competitive and hurting job creation. He also wants to expand IRS audits on taxpayers, even as millions of Americans are still waiting for their tax refunds. On spending, Democrats are seeking at least $300 billion in taxpayer dollars for their climate agenda while doing nothing to address soaring gas prices.
Given the economic pain we are all feeling, this tax-and-spend bill is an insult to the American people that ignores our most pressing needs. The price of gasoline has doubled under Biden, with experts predicting we will be paying $6 per gallon by August. Inflation is costing the average family an extra $5,000 per year. Employers are still struggling to find workers. And supply chain problems continue to result in empty shelves.
Instead of addressing these problems, Democrats are fixated on tax hikes and socialist spending that would upend any hopes of a recovery. No wonder the president’s approval rating is underwater and 83% of Americans rate him poorly on the economy.
It is now widely acknowledged that the president’s massive and unnecessary “stimulus” bill last year sparked our current inflation crisis. The results have been felt across our economy. More than 60% of small businesses now fear that inflation will drive them out of business, and economic confidence has reached its lowest level since 2009. Indeed, our economy shrank by 1.4% in the first quarter of this year, prompting fears of a recession. The last thing we need now is a tax increase.
Despite the president’s missteps, the Republican tax cuts of 2017 remain our biggest economic advantage. These policies, which I helped negotiate, unleashed an economic boom that lasted up until the pandemic. In the first two years of lower tax rates, business investment surged by 9.4%. Unemployment dropped to 3.5%, the lowest in 50 years. Incomes grew, especially among low-income earners and those without high school diplomas. On the whole, 90% of workers kept a larger share of their money.
We cannot afford to lose these highly successful tax cuts if we want a real recovery. I hope Manchin takes a step back from these Democratic talks and remembers why he rejected the Biden tax-and-spend plan in the first place. Republicans are committed to protecting tax relief as a bedrock of our post-pandemic economy.
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In this file photograph from the The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Former astronaut Mike Massimino smiles for a photograph during one of his two trips to space. Massimino will appear at the Lee County Library in Tupelo on Tuesday, June 14, to discuss his autobiography.
Veteran astronaut Mike Massimino to speak at Lee County Library Tuesday
TUPELO • A man who has been to the stars will land at the Lee County Library Tuesday night.
Former NASA astronaut and author Mike Massimino, who twice traveled into space to help service the Hubble Space Telescope, will speak tonight as part of the latest entry in the Lee County Library’s long-running Helen Foster Lecture Series on June 14.
The program, which is free for everyone, will begin at 7 p.m.
Massimino is expected to discuss his 2016 autobiography and New York Times bestseller, “Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe.”
A native of New York, Massimino graduated from MIT in 1992 and then went to work at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace in Houston, Texas, as a research engineer. In 1996, NASA selected him as an astronaut candidate, and he reported to the Johnson Space Center for training, according to biographical information posted to NASA’s website.
The veteran astronaut was originally scheduled to appear at the Tupelo-based library on April 5, but the event was postponed because of an “unexpected illness,” according to Lee-Itawamba Library System Director Jeff Tomlinson.
Made possible by an endowment fund created by its namesake, former librarian and chairman of the Lee County Library Board of Trustees Helen Foster, the Helen Foster Lecture Series has invited a myriad of authors, artists, journalists and others to the Tupelo-based library over the decades. Past guests have included National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham, former William Morris Agency head Sam Haskell, nationally syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson and bestselling author John Grisham.
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Swallow-tailed kites circle a hay field Monday Aug. 4, 2003, near Glennville, Ga.
STEPHEN MORTON I AP
By BRIAN BROOM The Clarion Ledger
JACKSON • Swallow-tailed kites are among Mississippi's most striking birds with their contrasting black and white feathers and long V-shaped tails.
Researchers have asked that sightings of swallow-tailed kites in Mississippi be reported for several years, but this year the public's help is more important in keeping tabs on the birds.
"Any time we know of a nesting area, it's important," said Nick Winstead, ornithologist with the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. "Monitoring is important because it helps us find the locations where the birds are and work with landowners to protect those sites for at least that nesting season, if possible."
"Unfortunately, we don't have the funding for aerial surveys this year," Winstead said.
Mississippi is asking for the public's help to protect swallow-tailed kites.
"They were in roughly 20 states historically in the eastern U.S.," Winstead said. "Now, they're in about seven or so Southeastern states. They are a species of conservation need."
"Given the social nature of these birds, they like to nest near other birds," Winstead said. "Given that gregarious nature, they're really slow to reoccupy areas they once occupied because there aren't other kites there."
"Any reports of nests would be good, but if anyone sees a bird in Central and North Mississippi it would be good to know, especially if they see birds carrying food to a location or if they see nesting locations," Winstead said. "We get fewer reports from Central and North Mississippi, so those reports are important to us."
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U.S. loses clout as rival China makes inroads with investments
By Guy Taylor The Washington Times
Hopes that the United States could seize on the Summit of the Americas this week to counter China’s growing influence and investment clout in Latin America appear to be falling flat, and the Biden administration may have itself to blame.
In speeches at the summit, neither President Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris made a single direct mention of China or the tsunami of trade and infrastructure lending deals companies linked to the communist regime have struck with governments across the region over the past decade.
China’s state-controlled press has noticed the lack of action. Several articles in recent days have touted the billions of dollars in investments and contracts that Chinese companies have won compared with their American rivals.
Song Junying, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Department at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Communist Party-controlled Global Times that U.S. companies have little expertise in massive overseas infrastructure projects and the U.S. government lacks the “financial power” to match Chinese rivals. Efforts to scare or coerce Central and South American firms to reject Chinese projects will fail, he said.
“The political climate between China and Latin American countries, as well as highly complementary economic structures, means that Latin American countries won’t choose sides or join some exclusive clubs the U.S. sets up to single out China,” the analyst said.
White House officials have suggested that the decision to avoid direct mention of China was calculated. Asked at a background briefing ahead of Biden’s speech whether the president planned to emphasize rising trade flows between Latin America and China, a senior administration official responded: “I don’t expect that to be a large feature of this.
Biden offered vague words during his speech in Los Angeles on Wednesday about how “democracy is under assault around the world” and must be not only “the defining feature of American histories but the essential ingredient to Americas’ futures.”
Despite a diplomatic brouhaha over the Biden administration’s decision not to invite the authoritarian leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the summit, Biden made no direct allusion to those governments’ political and economic ties to Russia and China.
The president did roll out an initiative — the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity — that administration officials say will help expand the economies of Latin American and Caribbean countries. A White House fact sheet broadly states that the partnership will draw “private investment” into the region and work toward multiple goals, including “creating clean energy jobs.”
Neither the fact sheet nor Biden’s speech mentioned any specific goals for private investment that might counter the tens of billions of dollars flowing into the region from Chinese government-connected sources.
“Over the past decade, China has sharpened its focus on countries considered to be in the U.S. zone of influence,” according to a recent op-ed written by Orit Frenkel, CEO of the American Leadership Initiative, a Washington-based think tank advocating for more robust U.S. competition with China.
“China’s trade with Central and Latin America has skyrocketed from $18 billion in 2002 to $449 billion in 2021, making it the second largest overall trading partner in the region and the largest trading partner with Brazil, Peru, Uruguay and Chile,” Frenkel wrote in the piece, which Real Clear Politics published in May. “Its investment in the region has also grown dramatically with its Belt and Road initiative now in 20 countries in the region and over $140 billion of investment.”
Jorge Heine, a former Chilean ambassador to China who now teaches at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies, told Politico’s China Watcher online newsletter that China is “the elephant in the room” at the summit. “The U.S. is competing with China for influence in Latin America, but it has little to offer to put on the table.”
Officials in the Trump administration regularly warned that the Belt and Road lending program, a pet project of Chinese President Xi Jinping, was predatory. They said it was designed to burden economically weaker nations with debt that might later be relieved in exchange for Chinese government access to natural resources and other forms of influence.
Although Biden and his team are notably less confrontational in their rhetoric toward China, they have sought to uphold Western-aligned alternative lending mechanisms to counter the Belt and Road program.
Last year, the Group of Seven leading industrial nations — the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom — announced the “Build Back Better World” (B3W) initiative to try to inspire private investment from wealthy democratic countries toward infrastructure and other needs in the developing world.
Administration officials have avoided framing the initiative as an effort to contain China. It remains to be seen whether Biden has the geopolitical capital to steer the initiative toward tangible results.
The Trump administration was more outspoken about rising Chinese influence in general but did not use hemispheric gatherings to counter Chinese inroads in the region.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not mention China in his January 2020 remarks to the Organization of American States, which oversees the Summit of the Americas. The event is held roughly every three years in different countries in the hemisphere.
Many analysts say China’s rising power represents Washington’s foremost challenge in Latin America and that a more clear-eyed focus on U.S. relationships and economic investments would strengthen Washington’s hand in addressing the challenge.
Alternatively, allowing China a free hand in Latin America could undermine Biden’s goals, said Ryan Berg, a senior fellow in the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“It’s always been difficult for Latin America to get its due,” Berg told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of this week’s summit. “But we’re pretty close to being in a geopolitical situation where Latin America moves from a strategic asset for us to a strategic liability.”
Michael Shifter, a senior fellow with the Inter-American Dialogue, suggested that the U.S. faces an uphill battle countering Chinese investment in the region, particularly when it comes to alternatives to “huge infrastructure projects that China is supporting.”
“A lot of Latin Americans are basically pragmatic and will take advantage of opportunities that emerge — whether from China or the United States — if it means growing economically,” Shifter said in an interview ahead of this week’s summit. “I don’t think the very strong anti-China discourse coming from both parties in Washington really resonates with Latin Americans, who feel the U.S. is not really offering something more attractive economically.
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Katina Holland, founder of Wear It Well in Tupelo, makes some adjustments to a display where people can take photos during the celebration of the five-year anniversary of Wear it Well on Monday morning.
Wear it Well volunteers Dnesha Starks and Angela Pannell, share a laugh with Rebecca Nelson, Director of Community Impact, as they prepare her a snowcone during the Wear it Well five year anniversary celebration on Monday in Tupelo.
Supporters of Wear it Well stop by their headquarters to celebrate the organization's five year anniversary on Monday morning.
Wear it Well celebrates their five year anniversary on Monday morning.
'I never would have imagined': Tupelo-based nonprofit Wear It Well celebrates five years
TUPELO • It took just five short years for Katina Davis Holland to turn a vision and faint semblance of a mission into a full-fledged nonprofit.
On Monday, Tupelo-based nonprofit Wear It Well hosted its five-year celebration block party at its Tupelo location at The Charles & Ruth Morris Home for Wear It Well, followed by a fundraiser at D’Cracked Egg in Tupelo.
Holland, the organization’s founder and director, launched Wear It Well in 2017 because she felt God charged her to serve the people. She started with the Extreme Makeover Program, which provides makeovers for people with cancer or a life-altering event or illness.
“I just thought it was going to be something simple, maybe once a month,” Holland said. “I never would have imagined in five years that it would have grown to this magnitude.”
Since its creation, Holland’s organization has grown to include programs focused on anti-bullying, health, education, empowerment and workplace readiness. The organization also provides people with basic needs like clothing and toiletries.
Partnerships have been part of Wear It Well’s success. The makeovers required a team of skilled individuals. Over the years, the nonprofit has built a steady rotation of 50 volunteers.
Leslie Freeman of Tupelo has volunteered with Wear It Well since the beginning. Before then, Freeman made breast cancer care packages on her own. When she saw Holland was hosting a breast cancer event, she reached out; from there, one year has become five.
Now a board member, Freeman remains with the organization because she loves its focus on diverse groups.
“A lot of people, they may come to Wear It Well feeling one type of way, but when they leave, their whole perspective is totally different,” Freeman said.
She called Holland a “selfless person.”
In 2019, Wear It Well’s efforts were bolstered by the donation of the Morris Home, giving what was a mobile operation a permanent home. Its 2020 opening allowed for the addition of its after school and summer tutoring programs, along with Repeat Boutique, its clothing closet. Even as the pandemic hit and fundraising lulled, Holland innovated, keeping the organization open for people who needed access to technology.
“We are here to stay,” Holland said. “We’re not going anywhere. We are preparing for bigger and better things.”
Just five years after creating Wear It Well, Holland’s work is inspiring others.
Itawamba County native Dominique Clemons became interested in volunteering with the organization just two weeks ago. Clemons moved back to Northeast Mississippi from Chicago, partially to help her community. She joined Wear It Well because she thought they were doing good work.
“Anyone that grows up in Small Town, Mississippi, how can you not take great pleasure in giving back to your community,” Clemons said. “Wear It Well, Inc. is the perfect opportunity to broadcast and show those acts.
Holland is excited for Wear It Well’s next five years. Her goal is to cultivate the group’s current programs to serve more. There is a constant need for funding to move from being completely volunteer run to having a fully staffed program, owning its space by purchasing it, and renovating more.
“(God) basically said to serve the people,” she said. “That’s who we are and what we do.”
Wear It Well awards two with memorial scholarships
As part of its five-year celebration, Wear It Well recognized the current and upcoming generation of Northeast Mississippi leaders.
The agency on Monday named the recipients of its annual Leona Givhan Davis Memorial Scholarship. Named for Holland’s late grandmother, whose legacy inspired Wear It Well’s creation, the scholarship is presented to high school seniors or non-traditional students in select counties who represent the spirit of Davis’ generosity.
This year’s four recipients, selected from an applicant pool of over 50, included Bryson Bowdrey of Tupelo High School, Karon Bradley, Jr. of Pontotoc High School, Madison Shells of Shannon High School and Melesia Lindsey, a fifth year student at Life Christain University studying theology. Each recipient wrote an essay on serving like Davis.
Lindsey is the organization’s first non-traditional student to receive the scholarship. A mother of three with four step-children from a previous marriage, Lindsey has spent years traveling abroad as a missionary. When she returned stateside, she decided it was important to study God’s word in more depth.
She hopes to leave a legacy of always serving like Jesus.
Bowdrey will attend the University of Mississippi to study biology/pre-med. His goal is to be an emergency medicine doctor. Shells plans to attend East Mississippi Community College to major in nursing, with the goal of becoming a licensed practical nurse.
Bradley was the first recipient from the Davis lineage. For him, Davis is Old Mama, his grandmother’s mother, who together taught him love and lending a helping hand. He plans to continue serving by studying applied behavior analysis.
“Leona’s legacy will prevail through me,” Bradley wrote in his essay. “I am an offspring of her five generations who she taught to love, laugh, learn and live. I will continue to carry the torch.”
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Kiser, Andra Faye
Andra Faye Kiser, 77, was reunited with her family and met her Savior face to face on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. She was born on July 19, 1944, in Amory, to the late Charles Andrew Kiser and Dimple Lann Kiser. Andra Faye grew up in Monroe County and graduated from Amory High School. She was a very smart young lady who furthered her education at "The W" and she eventually obtained her Master's Degree in Accountancy. Andra Faye enjoyed education and knowledge and loved her Alma Mater, "The W". Andra Faye was a diligent worker and was most proud of obtaining her CPA license. She was both self-employed as a CPA and worked with clients through Gerald Marion, CPA. Andra Faye thoroughly enjoyed her CPA work and anything associated with numbers. She was matter of fact and always real precise in all aspects of her life. When she was young, she and her family attended the Methodist Church in Amory. Later, after her father's passing, she and her mother started attending First Baptist Church. Eventually she became a member of First Baptist Church where she was a longtime member. She loved God, her Sunday school class and enjoyed gospel music. She and her mother were best friends, they enjoyed drinking coffee and visiting with others while at the Wellness Center. Every morning, she connected via phone with her family. Her favorite day of the week was always the day she went to the beauty shop, where her friend Vera made her beautiful. Some of the other special people in her life were Sam Mitchell and Sue Brown. She was definitely a character and will be missed. Left behind to cherish the memories of her are her cousins, Phil Hoots (Glenda), Doug Hoots (Peggy), Jimmy Phillips (Frankie), Eloise Harrison (Thomas) and Glen Devall. She was preceded in death by her parents, grandparents, Redder Lann and Murray Lann, close friend, Nancy. A Celebration of Life Service will held on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 at 11:00 am at E. E. Pickle Funeral Home in Amory with Bro. Jimmy Mc Fatter officiating. Burial will be at Hatley Cemetery. Visitation for family and friends will be held at the funeral home from 10:00 am until the service hour at the funeral home. Memories and condolences may be shared with her family at EEPickleFuneralHome.com
Andra Faye
Amory High School
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James L. Simpson, 79, fell asleep in death at his home early Sunday morning, June 12, 2022. He was born December 31,1942. James and Gale were married for 58 years. He was a loving father to two children, James Bradley and Catina Nicole. James had many interests, cows, horses and gardening. But most of all, he loved his God, Jehovah. James dedicated himself in 1968 to serving Jehovah and telling others about Jehovah's promises of a time when there will be no more sickness, pain or sorrow. He also worked hard assisting with the construction of Kingdom Halls for others to have a place for worship. James was preceded in death by his parents; W. T. and Jewel Simpson, two brothers, Walter Thomas and Hollis Doyle. He is survived by his wife Gale, son, Bradley (Mila) and daughter, Nicki and one brother, Robert Wayne. The family greatly appreciates the love, prayers and comfort provided by our wonderful spiritual family. Many thanks to the Kindred Hospice team for their genuine concern, loving support and guidance. Memorial services will be held at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, 112 Old Airport Rd S, Pontotoc, MS 38863 on Saturday, June 18, 2022, at 2:00 pm. Those attending in person are strongly encouraged to wear a mask while inside the facility. For videoconferencing information, please call 662-586-1801.
Walter Thomas
Robert Wayne
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Willis, Jr., Jimmy Leon
Jimmy Leon Willis, Jr., 50, died Friday, June 10, 2022, at his home. He was born in Tupelo on November 23, 1971, to Jimmy Leon Willis, Sr., and Mary Jean Kelly Willis. He was a 1989 graduate of Tupelo High School. He also attended Itawamba Community College in Fulton and Mississippi College in Clinton. He worked at J. T. Gilbert and Associates while attending college. He also worked briefly at BancorpSouth in Tupelo, prior to taking over ownership of Putter's Bottom Driving Range and Turtle Creek Golf Course. Most recently, he has overseen property rentals and management. During his junior high and high school years, Jimmy enjoyed football, basketball, and pole vaulting. He also enjoyed cycling and participated in some cycling events. As an adult, he greatly enjoyed watching movies, Formula 1 racing, and driving and working on his beloved Corvettes. He was a long-time member of the Eggville Church of Christ. Survivors include his mother, Jean Willis; his sisters, Ramon Willis Feather and Donna Willis; his nephews, Kyle and Colton Feather; one uncle, James Kelly (Ruth); and many beloved cousins. He was preceded in death by his father, Jimmy Leon Willis, Sr.; a sister, Mary Lee Willis; his paternal grandparents, R. C. and Betty Sue Willis; and his maternal grandparents, Raymond and Lizzie Kelly. Services honoring his life will be 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 15, 2022, at the Jefferson Street Chapel of W. E. Pegues Funeral Directors. Visitation will be 3:30 p.m. until service time Wednesday, June 15, 2022, at W. E. Pegues, Tupelo. The family respectfully requests visitors to wear masks. Honorary pallbearers will be Chad Willis, Gregg Willis, Dan Willis, Ken Cathcart, and all members of the Eggville Church of Christ. The services will be live streamed and recorded for those who may not be able to attend, at www.peguesfuneralhome.com. Expressions of sympathy and fond memories may be left at www.peguesfuneralhome.com.
Jimmy Leon Willis Sr.
Mary Lee Willis
Eggville Church Of Christ
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BMC names Morgan interim of Men’s Soccer
BLUE MOUNTAIN • Blue Mountain College Athletics has named John Morgan of Starkville, Miss. as interim head coach of men's soccer the school announced Thursday.
Morgan replaces Caryl Vogel who recently accepted the head coaching position at Itawamba Community College.
"It's a blessing to be named interim here at Blue Mountain College where we have such a strong Christian support system," he said. "It has been a dream of mine to coach in college, so this won't be something I take lightly."
Morgan has coaching stops at Bob Hope School in Port Arthur, Tex., Brenham High School in Brenham, Tex. and most recently at Starkville Academy in Mississippi.
BMC AD Will Lowrey commented, "We are so fortunate to have such a qualified leader in John Morgan to help move the ball down the field in a positive way. Coach Vogel has left large shoes to fill, so it's vitally important that we keep our momentum moving forward. Coach Morgan has the passion and enthusiasm to complete the task."
A former collegiate goalkeeper at Louisiana College, Morgan has coached his teams to numerous playoff appearances, a district championship at Starkville Academy and a state finals appearance in 2022.
"I will be getting to work right away to build this program to its highest potential, and for our players to be the best versions of themselves," Morgan said.
BMC will open the 2022 regular season August 26 against Millsaps College in Blue Mountain.
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Prentiss Caradine, 62, of Tupelo, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, two counts of possession of a Schedule II drug.
Stephen Cockerham, 46, of Houston, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, possession of a Schedule II drug.
Joseph Coffman, 31, of Athens, Alabama, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, possession of a Schedule II drug.
Adam Eaton, 21, of Tupelo, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, possession of a Schedule II drug, uttering a forgery.
Vincent Darion Edwards, 27, of Tupelo, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, possession of a Schedule II drug.
Frederick Ellis, 41, of Tupelo, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, possession of a Schedule II drug.
Mary Grady, 44, of Tupelo, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, possession of a Schedule II drug.
Jason Kellum, 43, of Athens, Alabama, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, possession of a Schedule II drug.
Danny Pettit, 40, of Abbeville, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, home repair fraud.
Christine L. Priest, 48, of Booneville, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, possession of methamphetamine.
Andrew Robbins, 32, of Tupelo, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, shooting into a motor vehicle.
Hayley Stevenson, 28, of Nettleton, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, possession of crack cocaine, possession of methamphetamine.
Edgread Tallie, 49, of Columbus, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, possession of a Schedule II drug.
John White, 21, of Shannon, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, possession of a Schedule I drug.
The following reports were filed Monday by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
A Calvert Drive Tupelo man said his girlfriend’s son, 30, showed up at his house at 5 a.m. and caused a disturbance when he was asked to leave.
A County Road 1451 Mooreville woman said a black lab mix showed up at her house yesterday. The dog seems friendly but she is concerned about her grandchild and elderly mother.
A man said he rented a U-Haul to move out of a County Road 1023 Plantersville house, because the landlord would not fix issues at the residence. When he arrived the house and all his contents were burned to the ground.
A Mitchell Road woman said overnight, someone went through her unlocked car and stole a Nike backpack that might have contained her laptop.
A County Road 1503 Baldwyn man, 64, returned home from an errand and found a strange vehicle in his drive. He found his daughter, 18, in the bedroom with a white male who appeared to be around 35. He told the male to leave his house. The suspect grabbed him. The daughter shoved both of them, causing the man to cut his hand.
A County Road 600 Shannon man said his ex-girlfriend is constantly sending him messages on social media. He has blocked her and she creates new accounts. She has also been messaging his new girlfriend.
A woman was trying to remove her belongings from a County Road 684 house but her ex-boyfriend, who had been drinking, was getting loud and refused to allow her. A deputy told the man to stand aside. When he refused the officer, he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
A County Road 1057 Tupelo man said a male acquaintance showed up around 10:30 p.m. and started banging on all the windows and doors. He said this happens often. The suspect appeared to be under the influence.
A County Road 855 Shannon woman said a white couple came into her yard, covered her security cameras, and stole two sets of car rims, a floor jack, a welder, a lawn mower and three four-wheelers.
A County Road 1559 Nettleton woman said her neighbor’s dogs keep coming onto her property, going under the residence and damaging her wiring and water pipes.
A County Road 999 Plantersville woman said a white Toyota Camry has been sitting on the road near her driveway and at a church near her house. When her husband approached the car, they sped away. She think it is the person who was stalking her adult daughter.
A Birmingham Ridge Road woman said a male acquaintance came to her house to talk. She escorted him to his car and told him to not come back. He sat in her driveway until a deputy arrived and told he needed to leave.
A Calvert Drive man said his nephew came to his house after being told multiple times to not return. The man let the nephew gather his belongings, then called 911.
A Yon O Main Trail Lake Piomingo man said he dropped a check to AT&T in an East Main mailbox on May 23. About two weeks later, his bank alerted him of insufficient funds. When he investigated, that check had been altered, changing the amount from $128 to $2,500 and the payee from AT&T to an unknown female.
A County Road 115 Shannon woman said her husband told the neighbor to be quiet and the two men got into a verbal altercation.
A County Road 2346 Guntown woman said a white couple drove up in a black Hyundai. The man said his cousin used to live in the house and left some belongings there, which he was there to pick up. She told the man the only stuff in her house was hers. He said he was going to talk to his aunt and left.
A father and son said an unknown woman showed up at their County Road 1325 Saltillo property. She was hollering profanities at the men. She refused to give deputies any information except her name.
A Highway 363 Guntown woman said an unknown female rang her door ball after 2:30 a.m. The suspect said she was lost and someone was trying to shoot her. The woman went back inside and called 911.
A County Road 373 Verona man, 30, said he was washing off his driveway while his brother, 34, was vacuuming his car. The brother asked the man not to spray him, which led to a physical altercation where the older brother hit him in the face several times.
A woman said while she was attending a service inside the Auburn Baptist Church, someone entered her car and stole a lock box containing $1,400 in cash and papers for her work. A dark four-door truck was next to her car but sped off when she approached.
A County Road 373 Tupelo man said he was working on his car at 3:30 a.m. While replacing the brake light switch under the dash, he found what appears to be a tracking device hard wired to the car. He unplugged the device. He said he has had the car since February.
Mitchell Road
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AMORY – Students in East Amory Elementary School fourth-grade math instructor Paige West’s classes placed third out of 294 Mississippi schools in the SplashLearn competition this year. The independent study program offers instructional support activities in math and reading for kindergarten through fifth-grade students.
“It was a ten-week competition that ran from March 1 to May 9. Out of 19,488 classes in the United States, we placed 115th, or in the top 15 percent,” West said. “We’ve used the program for years, even before COVID-19. The lessons reinforce skills learned in the classroom.”
She said each student has his or her own personal account. When students log in, they complete their lessons, and every correct answer earns a point for the class.
“They have worked so very hard for this accomplishment,” said East Amory Elementary School Principal Dr. Diedre Huntley.
John Tyler is one of the 62 students who participated in the program.
“It helped me to understand the lessons from our teacher. We practiced the skills we learned so we could score better on our tests,” he said.
Paige West
East Amory Elementary School
Splashlearn
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Sens. Wicker, Hyde-Smith noncommittal on bipartisan gun safety proposal
JACKSON • Mississippi two U.S. senators — Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith — in recent statements vacillated on a new bipartisan gun safety proposal that seeks to curb the carnage stemming from repeated mass shootings.
A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators announced on Sunday that they struck a deal on narrowly tailored gun safety measures that had the potential to break a decades-long logjam in Washington over gun reform measures, according to the Associated Press.
The proposal put forward by 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats would include enhanced background checks for firearm buyers under the age of 21, close a loophole on convicted domestic abusers from owning a gun and provide money for mental health resources.
It would also provide grants for states to enact so-called red-flag laws, which would allow law enforcement and state courts to temporarily confiscate guns from people believed to be dangerous.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, announced at a press conference on Tuesday that he was "comfortable" with the framework and would likely support it.
But in a deeply conservative state like Mississippi, any major gun reform measure would likely be a tough sell to the state’s U.S. senators, both of whom are Republicans and have received endorsements from the National Rifle Association.
Wicker, from Tupelo, told the Daily Journal in a statement that he looks forward to reviewing the proposed language when it comes out to see if there are “workable solutions to promote school safety and prevent gun violence” without infringing upon the rights of law-abiding gun owners.
“As I have said before, I support efforts to step up enforcement of our existing laws and address the serious mental health challenges that lead to mass shootings,” Wicker said.
Chris Gallegos, spokesman for Hyde-Smith, said the state’s junior U.S. senator from Brookhaven would like to see the actual legislative language before commenting in detail. Still, she remained skeptical of the proposed framework.
“The Senator remains steadfast in protecting 2nd Amendment rights, supporting law enforcement and protecting children,” Gallegos said. “Given that, she finds it difficult not to be wary of any agreement being praised by some of the same people who not long ago called for defunding the police and easing the prosecution of crime.”
The framework is in response to back-to-back mass shootings, including one instance in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, which left 19 children and two teachers dead.
It’s unclear when the draft’s framework would be codified into an actual bill, but the Senate negotiators are aiming to hold a vote on the final product before Congress leaves for its July 4 recess in less than two weeks, according to Politico.
Chris Gallegos
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Tim Elko and his Ole Miss teammates are nearing their Omaha debut.
'It's a dream come true': Tim Elko, teammates prepare for their College World Series moment
OXFORD – It’s taken a few days, but Ole Miss senior Tim Elko is finally realizing the gravity of what took place on Sunday afternoon in Hattiesburg.
When a popup dropped into the first baseman's glove for the final out of a 5-0 win over Southern Miss, a dream had been realized. After years of coming oh-so-close, Ole Miss — awarded the very last spot in the entire 2022 NCAA Baseball Tournament field following a roller coaster ride of a season — was headed to the College World Series.
It is the sixth appearance in Omaha for Ole Miss and the first since 2014.
“It’s starting to (sink in) now. It took a day or two,” Elko said. “But I grew up watching the College World Series, and I’ve been dreaming of getting there for the last couple years. And now I finally get to play there. So, it’s a dream come true.”
It is Mike Bianco’s second time in the College World Series as Ole Miss head coach, and he went several additional times as a player and assistant coach at LSU.
Things around the College World Series have changed over the years; the series used to be played at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium before moving to its current home, Charles Schwab Field (it used to be called T.D. Ameritrade Park). But the energy, the pomp and circumstance that fills the warm Nebraska air every June? That’s eternal.
“People don’t say, ‘I want to go to the College World Series.’ They say, ‘I want to get to Omaha,’” Bianco said. “And you don’t do that without being a special place, and without the people in the community embracing it.”
The eight-team CWS field is officially set, and there are a lot of familiar names for the Rebels. Four teams from the SEC West are in — Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Arkansas and the Rebels’ opening opponent, Auburn. The other four teams in the field are Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma and Stanford. It’s just the second time ever that four teams from the same division of the same conference have made it to Omaha, the other instance coming in 1997 when Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Mississippi State all went.
Four SEC teams in the College World Series is tied for the most from a single conference. Not coincidentally, the other instances were also SEC teams in 2019, 2015, 2004 and 1997.
Ole Miss took two of three games at Auburn in March.
“That’s why you come to play in the SEC. I believe it’s the best conference there is out there, the best amateur baseball you can probably play,” junior second baseman Peyton Chatagnier said. “It’s really cool. It’s awesome for the SEC.”
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Cockrell
TUPELO • The state crime lab has confirmed that human remains found in west Tupelo last month are of a Tupelo woman missing since August 2021.
Lee County Coroner Carolyn Green said the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Pearl confirmed the remains are of Lori Ann Cockrell. The coroner said the cause of death has yet to be determined.
“The Tupelo Police Department is working alongside the Lee County Coroner’s Office to investigate this death," Green said.
Tupelo police were notified around midday on May 21 that remains, possibly human, had been located in the Old Belden Circle area. The Union County Search and Rescue squad has been conducting follow up searches of that area for Cockrell, who was last heard from in August 2021.
Cockrell, 58, was last seen around 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 10, 2021, in the 600 block of Filgo Road in west Tupelo. She was last seen wearing a T-shirt and black leggings.
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TUPELO • The sixth person wanted in connection with a deadly December 2021 Plantersville home invasion is now in custody.
U.S. Marshals arrested Peyton Bogan, 21, at a boarding house in Dallas, Texas, Tuesday morning, according to Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson. Officials are currently working to extradite Bogan back to Mississippi.
When he is returned to Lee County, Bogan will be the sixth person charged with capital murder in the Dec. 22, 2021, death of Justin Mayfield, 39, who was shot and killed inside his County Road 746 Plantersville home during an armed robbery.
“Some people actually went inside the home. Some planned it. Some acted as a lookout and passed along information,” Johnson said. “This was planned and targeted. They knew every step this guy was taking.”
As they have made arrests, investigators say they have been able to learn more details of the crime and who was involved. Johnson said there is at least one more person who will likely be charged.
Deputies responded to Mayfield’s residence south of Plantersville around 2 p.m. on Dec. 22, 2021, after someone called 911 to say “an accident, shooting or incident” took place. The responding deputies found an adult male with multiple gunshot wounds in the bathroom of the house. He was lying in the bathtub and was pronounced dead on the scene.
About six weeks after the crime, authorities made the first three arrests. In early February, authorities charged Christopher Clayton, 21, of Fulton; Shanery D. Hampton, 29, of Macon; and Gavin Jeffers, 28, of West Point, with capital murder. They are being held without bond in the Lee County Jail.
In mid-March, officials charged Anthony Dixon, 32, of Guntown, and Dartonio Pinson, 31, of Shannon, with capital murder. They are each being held in the county jail on a $5 million bond.
The differences in the bond amounts shows Pinson and Dixon likely played a less active role in the robbery and killing.
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Katie Coon speaks after being named the new principal at the Early Childhood Education Center during the Tupelo Public School District board meeting on Tuesday afternoon at Church Street Elementary School. Coon, who will step into her new role in July, currently serves as assistant principal at Pierce Street Elementary.
TUPELO • A longtime Tupelo educator has been selected to head the city school district's pre-K school.
Katie Coon has been hired as the new principal of Tupelo's Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC), which educates around 300 pre-kindergarten students each year. Tupelo Public School District officials announced the hire on Tuesday.
Coon will step into her new position on July 1. She replaces Haley Stewart, who served as principal of ECEC for five years.
"I'm thrilled for this opportunity," Coon said. "There is an incredible legacy that ECEC has in our community, and I look forward to being back there to work with the staff, parents and students to strengthen that legacy and help move ECEC forward."
Coon, a Corinth native, has been with Tupelo Schools for 17 years.
She graduated from Mississippi State University with a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and earned a master's degree from Delta State University.
Her teaching career began at Joyner Elementary School, where she spent five years as an assistant and kindergarten teacher before moving to ECEC for seven years.
For the last five years, she's served as assistant principal at Pierce Street Elementary, a school that has earned an A-rating from the Mississippi Department of Education.
Pierce Street principal Amy Tate said Coon has worked extensively to support and serve the school during her time there.
"Katie’s commitment to providing every student with an excellent educational experience will serve her well in this new capacity," Tate said.
Coon said it feels great to be returning to ECEC.
"I am honored to lead one of Tupelo’s most invaluable resources — the Early Childhood Education Center," Coon said. "ECEC has an incredible legacy, and I look forward to working with the staff to strengthen the positive impact that the school has in our community and beyond."
Coon said she plans to build on existing work at ECEC, and one of her long-term goals is to see pre-K expand further to serve more children in the community.
She and her husband, Ryan Coon, a photographer and videographer for TPSD, have a blended family of five kids, all students in the district.
Principal Katie Coon
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A few days ago, my wife and I joined some friends for a gathering during a few rare hours when we weren’t busy hauling a teenager to some kind of expensive activity or hosting an entire herd of them at our home to ransack our pantry and abuse the plumbing. The highlight of the get-together was watching the final episode of “Stranger Things,” Season 4, Volume 1, on Netflix while snacking, catching up, snacking, reminiscing, snacking and snacking.
About a week before our friend-gathering, my wife and I began the harrowing process of cleaning out the bedroom of our youngest-of-three teenage daughters to prepare for the delivery of new furniture — because she claimed she could no longer fit into her childhood bed without becoming a professional street contortionist (which doesn’t sound too bad to me). Throughout the ordeal, I couldn’t help drawing parallels between the “Stranger Things” universe and this bedroom reorganization project.
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Fair time is just around the corner, with official opening day beginning Tuesday, July 5. However, there are some new changes to the fair that everyone needs to take into account if you are going to participate in these particular activities or enter items in the fair, because they will not be held during the actual week of the fair.
To start with, the Fairest of the Fair competition will be held at the exhibit building next Tuesday, June 21, 6 p.m. Go by the extension office for registration form and more information. Or call 489-3910.
Other events begin on Monday, June 27 with the Miss Rodeo Horsemanship competition in the outside arena at 7 p.m.
There will be a break from the fair until Tuesday, July 5 when other regular activities will begin. These include senior citizens day, buckaroo rodeo and dairy show on that day, Wednesday will see the goat show, children’s celebration, livestock exhibition and clinic, pony pulling and family night at the fair.
Thursday July 7 there will be a same show and youth rodeo and the weekend will round out with two nights of rodeo action, the beef show during the day on Saturday as well as the domino tournament.
The exhibit room will be open for viewing Thursday and Friday nights from 5-8 p.m.
The carnival will be in town from July 5-9. It will be open Tuesday from 5-10 p.m. no armbands all rides are $1. Wednesday from 5-11 p.m. is $25 armband night. Thursday is $30 armband night from 5-11 p.m. However, if you and a friend come together and purchase at the same time you can buy one and get one free. Both Friday and Saturday nights the armbands are $30.
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The New Albany School Board of Trustees has approved Katie Jenkins as the new Head Softball Coach for New Albany High School (NAHS).
“We are excited about Coach Jenkins leading our softball program. She has twelve years of head coaching experience and has competed for championships regularly,” said Cody Stubblefield, NAHS Athletic Director. “We feel she has the knowledge and experience to take our softball program to the next level.”
Jenkins has twelve years of coaching experience and comes to New Albany from Tupelo Schools. Prior to her time at Tupelo, Jenkins served as the head coach at Lafayette High School and Hernando High School.
Jenkins also has experience as a college softball player playing both at the community college and college level. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Belhaven College and her master’s degree from Mississippi State University.
“I am extremely excited to be the next head coach and this opportunity to bring a new passion, new traditions, and experiences to New Albany Softball,” Jenkins said. “With the support and shared excitement from my family we are ready to be Bulldogs. We already have plenty of maroon!” Jenkins added that her goal is to be a positive force that will build the program and prepare the athletes for the next level both academically and athletically.
New Albany Lady Bulldogs
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Whiteside
The New Albany School Board of Trustees has approved Drew Wheeler as the new Head Baseball Coach for New Albany High School (NAHS).
“We are excited to welcome Coach Wheeler to the Bulldog family,” said Cody Stubblefield, NAHS Athletic Director. “He has the knowledge, experience, and work ethic to positively affect our students both on and off the field.”
Wheeler has six years of coaching experience and comes to New Albany from Lee County Schools. He served as the high school assistant coach for Mooreville High School and as the head baseball coach for the middle school and junior varsity programs there.
Wheeler also has experience as a college baseball player playing both at the community college and Division 1 level. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Mississippi Valley State University and his Masters in Educational Leadership from the University of Mississippi.
“I am excited and honored to be the next head baseball coach for the New Albany Bulldogs. My family and I are ready to dive deep into the New Albany community,” Wheeler said. “My goal is to bring a winning culture to New Albany as we develop great baseball players and young men, on and off the field.”
Wheeler’s baseball staff includes Brett Pierce who is currently an assistant coach for the baseball program. Also joining Wheeler and Pierce will be Assistant Coach Eli Whiteside.
Whiteside is a retired professional baseball catcher. He is a graduate of New Albany High School, attended Delta State University, and was drafted in the 6th round of the 2001 Major League Baseball Draft. He played with the Baltimore Orioles, San Francisco Giants, and Chicago Cubs organizations.
Whiteside was on the 2010 World Series Champions team with the Giants and later served on the Giants staff as a catching instructor.
Drew Wheeler
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Pontotoc County’s Juneteenth festival will kick off this Saturday, June 18 with a parade at 10 a.m. and registration of guests at 11 a.m. The re-opening ceremony will be at 11:30 with the festival officially beginning at 12 noon.
The parade will be down Main Street and all other activities will be at the First Choice Bank Gateway Pavilion. The theme this year is "This Is Us". Other activities after the parade include non stop music and food after the festival opens. There will be a kiddie corner, teen lounge, grab bags, yard games, academic achievement awards and children’s art displays. In addition there will be a black trivia contest, spades tournament, classic cars and more.
Organizers are looking forward to the day long festivities after having to be on hiatus the past two years because of the pandemic.
“We wanted to come back sooner, but our group members' and guests' health and safety was most important,” said committee member Shonve Ball. “We're hoping that our turnout will be equal to if not better than the first one in 2019 with so many locations hosting a festival this year as well.”
And the most exciting part of the celebrations this year is now the day has a federal holiday status, signed into law last year by President Biden. However, because of the pandemic concerns a celebration wasn’t held last year.
“This is the first year [we can celebrate with] Juneteenth recognized as a federal holiday and we want to celebrate that long awaited victory with all the people of Pontotoc County and neighboring communities,” said Ester Dabney who is vice president of the committee.
There are a lot of activities on tap for the day, but the organizers mostly want people to enjoy learning about the history of the people who live in their own backyard.
“We are hoping to keep the spirit of the very first Juneteenth celebration alive through the sharing of the history, family friendly activities, a variety of traditional Juneteenth foods and beverages, and great music,” said Danielle Williams who is president of the committee.
The first activity of the day is the parade which will kick off at 10.
“We would love to see everyone in the county line the streets for the parade,” said secretary of the committee Barbara Curry. “ Our theme this year is ‘This Is Us’ and we want to share with our community who we are as a people and what our history and culture means to this country.”
And they are grateful for the support of folks from across the county and beyond.
“We are extremely thankful to the people of Pontotoc and the surrounding areas who have contributed in any way to this event,” committee member Kim Graham said. “Without help from others, there is no way we would have been able to pull this together.”
And they are excited about the positive influence the day will have on everyone.
“I am new to the organization, but I have enjoyed helping plan this event and have learned so much about how much work goes into pulling every detail together to make sure everything flows and stays on schedule,” said organizer Ranata Roberson. I am very proud of what we're going to present to the public this weekend.”
The day’s event lineup
The day will begin with the parade lineup to start at 8 a.m. with floats then other entries will begin the lineup by 9 a.m. and the parade will step off at 10. Be at the First Choice Gateway pavilion by 11 a.m. to sign up for activities and give aways and to receive grab bags.
In signing up for various things, African American students who have passed on to the next grade level can enter a drawing by providing proof with their report card. Four winners from grades 1-11 will be chosen.
If you are Class of 2022 high school or college, and you register, providing a copy of your high school/college diploma you may be one of four lucky winners of $100.
You can also nominate your dad at the Black Fathers Matter registration table. Four Father’s Day gift cards will be given away.
The official opening of the day will begin at 11:30 a.m. with a host of activities from Scripture reading to the Juneteenth songfest. Sonnie Rock Williams will emcee the events with D.J. Love Bone, One Stop Production.
The songfest will kick off with Gospel Hour provided by Denise King as well as the Golden Wings Quartet. Melissa Roberson and the Mississippi Mouths Puppet show will hit the stage next followed by Brejayne, K Fizzle and KaShalot KG, Blazin’ Bratz Majorette Dance Team, Family Soul, Monty J. with Tirvarrus Hadley, AJ and the Band and conclude with closing ceremonies.
While all the music is filling the air there will be plenty of activities to keep you busy from eating to playing spades. There is also a Children’s Corner for children in grades six and under and a Teen Lounge for those in grades 7-12.
“We are excited about our new teen lounge area,” said committee member Qiana Dandridge. “Sometimes teenagers are left out of the planning process for large events such as this, but we wanted to make sure that we provided a special place for teens to mingle with other young people, so we made their entertainment a primary focus this year.”
There will be a charge for some of the foods that are offered at the festival this year, but the food in the children’s area is free. “We didn’t want the kids to have to be asking their parents for money to eat,” explained Deanielle Wiliams.
Activities in the children’s area includes a sensory play area, STEAM activities, crafts, bouncers, puppets, games and prizes, face painting, story time and more.
In the teen lounge there will be a black out tent, dance off, selfie stations, karaoke, games, self server snacks and beverages, a graffiti wall and more.
After the tents come down
Organizers stressed that this is not just about a one day event that folks come to and never learn from.
We don't intend for the Juneteenth Festival to be the only time Pontotoc sees us,” said committee member Nekole Goree. “Our purpose is to build a better community through historical and cultural awareness, so we are looking forward to sponsoring several cultural and community development activities throughout the year.”
And they are already looking forward to the next time the tents will go up and folks will gather to enjoy food and fun, with the help of more people getting involved.
“Hopefully after this festival is over, more people will be encouraged to join the committee, participate in the planning process, come to the activities we offer throughout the year, and continue to celebrate the holiday with us for years to come,” said committee member Linda Johnson.
So mark your calendar and get ready to enjoy the days activities at the Pontotoc First Choice Gateway Pavilion this Saturday.
Generally sunny. Hot and humid. High 96F. Winds light and variable..
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Kelly, Black win Benton, Tippah counties in primary election
Voters in Benton and Tippah counties took to the polls on Tuesday, June 7 for the primary election, where the First Congressional District Seat in the U. S. House of Representatives was on the ticket for Democratic and Republican voters alike.
Incumbent Trent Kelly easily clinched the Republican nomination with over 27,000 votes (89.8%) to just 10.2% of the votes from challenger Mark Strauss of Desoto County.
In the Democratic race, Dianne Black received 79.1% of the votes over Tishomingo County native Hunter Avery to move on to the general election on Nov. 8, where she will try to unseat Kelly from a fifth-consecutive term.
The First Congressional district encompasses Alcorn, Benton, Calhoun, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Clay, DeSoto, Itawamba, Lafayette, Lee, Lowndes, Marshall, Monroe, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Tate, Tippah, Tishomingo, Union and Webster counties, in addition to a segment of Oktibbeha County.
The primary election saw a very low voter turnout in Benton County, where just a total of 386 votes were submitted across all five precincts. Kelly took 227 votes to just 29 from Strauss. Black garnered 93 votes to 37 from Hunter.
In Tippah County, voters maintained similar results across the region as Kelly took 91.8% of the votes in the Republican primary. Black saw a slight decline in Tippah compared to the rest of the area, winning just 67.5% of the vote.
The deadline to register for the November general election is Oct. 10.
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USDA designates six Mississippi counties as a primary natural disaster area
NEW ALBANY • Administrator Zach Ducheneaux designated six (6) counties in the State of Mississippi as the primary natural disaster area. Producers in Benton, Neshoba, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Tippah, and Winston counties who suffered physical damage and losses caused by a tornado and high winds that occurred on April 13, 2022, may be eligible for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) emergency loans.
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Former Ripley coach to be inducted into MAC Hall of Fame
Former Ripley girls basketball, slow pitch, and fast pitch softball coach Shane Montgomery is one of five coaches that will be inducted into the Class of 2022 Mississippi Association of Coaches (MAC) Hall of Fame.
The 49th Annual Mississippi Association of Coaches Hall of Fame Induction & Awards Banquet sponsored by BankPlus will be held on Friday, June 17, at 6 p.m. at the Sheraton Flowood Refuge Hotel & Conference Center off Airport Road in Flowood, MS. Upon the induction of the Class of 2022, the MAC Hall of Fame membership will increase to 258 total (244 lifetime and 14 honorary members). The MAC Coaches Hall of Fame was created in 1973.
An outstanding championship coach in the sports of basketball and softball, Montgomery has had a remarkable 30-year coaching career at Tremont, North Pontotoc, and Ripley.
Montgomery was born in Pontotoc County and was a basketball All-Star at North Pontotoc in Ecru. He received his higher education degrees from Itawamba Community College and Ole Miss before entering the coaching ranks.
Montgomery began his three-decade coaching career in 1983 at Tremont where he was head coach for girls and boys basketball. He led the Tremont girls’ basketball teams to one North half title, five state tournament appearances, and two state runner-up finishes.
He coached basketball and softball at his alma mater at North Pontotoc on two occasions from 1990 to 1997 and from 2005 to 2013. He led the North Pontotoc girls’ basketball teams to four North half appearances and one state tournament appearance while his fast pitch softball squads claimed two North half titles, one state runner-up finish, and the 2010 state championship. He guided the North Pontotoc slow pitch softball teams to one North Half title and one state runner-up finish.
He coached basketball and softball at Ripley High from 1997 to 2005 where his basketball teams won two North Half crowns, one state runner-up finish, and the 2003 state championship. Montgomery's Ripley fast pitch teams had five North half appearances. Overall, Montgomery’s girls’ basketball teams compiled a record of 616 wins and 319 losses while his fast pitch teams won 256 games against 122 losses and his slow pitch squads finished with 278 wins and 203 losses.
Montgomery was named division girls basketball coach of the year 10 times, the division slow pitch coach of the year four times, and the division fast pitch coach of the year seven times. Montgomery has the unique distinction of being named coach of the year by the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in three different sports—once in basketball, once in slow pitch, and once in fast pitch. He was named the MAC Fast Pitch Coach of the Year in 2011, the Northeast Mississippi Fast Pitch Coach of the Year in 2010, and the 2013 Northeast Mississippi Girls Basketball Coach of the Year. Coach Montgomery coached in two MAC All-Star Girls basketball games, and two times each in the MAC Slow and Fast Pitch All-Star contests.
Montgomery is a loyal and longtime member of the MAC having served on the Board of Directors, the Executive Board, and as President from 2013-14.
Joining Montgomery in the 2022 Hall of Fame class is Willie Collins, Dodd Lee, Jimmy Mitchell and Dean Shaw.
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INGOMAR – Ingomar basketball is rarely short on talent. At the moment, it’s not short on youth, either.
During a game against Houlka in the Ingomar Summer Tournament on Thursday, the Falcons started three sophomores and two freshmen. Yet they pulled out a 32-27 win with a strong fourth quarter.
“We’re up and down, like you would expect for a young group,” coach Jonathan Ashley said. “As we mature, I think they’ve got a chance to be pretty good.”
Ingomar lost five seniors – and a lot of production – from last season’s squad, which went 25-11 and reached the third round of the Class 1A playoffs. It will be up to youngsters like freshman guard Jojo Petty and sophomore forward Jack Denton to fill those shoes.
Ashley believes this group has a high ceiling.
“It’s going to be, how hard do they want to work at it? How much do they want to study? A lot of these guys were around and got to play with (Zach) Shugars and guys like that,” Ashley said. “Zach was special, but he was also special in a lot of ways because just how he studied the game and studied the opponent. He was one of those that made everybody around him better.
“If we can get some of these guys to take that kind of role and take that kind of ownership, they could be really good.”
There is plenty for the Falcons to work on this summer, from becoming tougher in the paint to being more consistent on defense. After giving up 60 points to Walnut on Monday, Ingomar allowed 52 total to Blue Mountain and Houlka on Tuesday. It was a step in the right direction, but only one step.
“We’ve got to learn how to rotate,” Petty said. “Our help-side defense is weak.”
Growing pains are inevitable, and there will be setbacks. As demanding as he is of his players, Ashley understands that. So does Petty.
“We’re just trying to be compatible with each other, trying to get better,” Petty said. “We don’t have a lot of experience, but this group is really talented. So our plan is to get to work and bring that gold ball back here.”
Ingomar Falcons
Jonathan Ashley
Jojo Petty
Zach Shugars
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Wanda and Ed Hancock sit side by side, sharing every moment they have together after their time apart.
Wand works on her crocheting.
HOUSTON – Wanda and Ed Hancock are two of the most know people around Chickasaw County, but one fateful day would set them on a course they never envisioned for themselves, and would bring the community together around them in the wake.
“I don't really know where to start. Nov. 15, we went to the doctor and we tested positive for Covid,” said Wanda. “Nov. 16, they had made arrangements for us to go to the infusion center in Tupelo to get the infusion. They got Edwin started right off the bat. They came to me, and my oxygen wouldn't stay above 94%. They said, 'You've got to go to the hospital.'”
Those seven words held far greater significance than either of them realized at the time, however, as it was the phrase that kicked off a five and a half month stint in the hospital for her.
“They did a chest x-ray and the doctor said, 'Well, you're in the right place, but we don't have a room for you.' I said what's wrong, and he said I had Covid Pneumonia. So from there, I went to Gilmore Memorial Hospital and stayed there for nine days, there was no pulmonologist or anything there, so the kids got to calling around and I finally got a place on the Covid floor in Tupelo, and I stayed there for three weeks.”
She wiped the tears as she thought about her ordeal, and she said she still gets emotional thinking about it.
After all, she was separated from her husband of almost 42 years. The two will celebrate their anniversary on June 20.
“That's the longest Edwin and I have been separated since we've been married.”
However, it wasn't by choice.
“I had Covid too and I was here by myself and wasn't supposed to get out and go anywhere,” he said. “They said I could talk to her nurses. They were telling me every day that I called, 'she's very critical,' that's all the information I was getting. They said she's showing some improvement, but she's still very critical. It stayed that way for 21 days.”
However, she was not giving up, not by a long shot. She was determined to see it through to the end.
“All the nurses were amazed. I still had my wits about me. I called Edwin and said 'You're going to have to pay the bills, I'm not going to get out of here in time to pay them.' I thought maybe after that, another week to be in the hospital...oh no, when I got off that floor, I got onto three west, and the nurses there were wonderful, I couldn't have asked for anything better, but I still laid flat on my back, my oxygen would not register, I was still taking 100% oxygen.”
This also spelled trouble for her.
“She had a doctor come in and tell her she was using too much oxygen and she would have to go somewhere else,” said Ed. “They sent her to an acute hospital, they called it, in Jackson, and that was a wasted trip. They got the oxygen down some and then she had to go to another hospital.”
However, when searching for her next landing spot, prayers were answered as she found a spot in the newly-opened swing bed program at Houston. She was finally coming home, or at least home adjacent.
“They had just opened the swing bed program [in Houston] and I have thanked God many times for that program. I had not been on my feet or walked for four months. I started rehab out here at Trace Regional and I can't say enough good about them.”
“She was in a hospital completely for five and a half months,” he said.
On top of that, she had been laying in a bed the entire time.
“She couldn't walk, she couldn't even stand up after four months. They tried to stand her up once in Jackson, and she just went on down and they wouldn't try it anymore.”
However, one day, something happened that he still remembers vividly.
“They started taking her down for therapy, and I was sitting up in the room waiting for them to come back, and they called me and said, 'They need you down here in therapy.' I thought something bad had happened, and said I'll be right there. I walked down the stairs and walked in and they said, 'No, we've just got something we want to show you,' and they looked over there and said 'Stand up,' and she stood up. That was the first time I had seen her stand since she had been sick. That was something.”
While the seriousness of her predicament was not lost on her, she still struggled to grasp it.
“I did not realize I was that sick, I had no earthly idea I was that sick. I never had any fever, I coughed, but that's nothing unusual for me. It has been an eye-opener. I went back for a contrast a couple of weeks ago. I thought I was going to have a bronchial scope, but they didn't end up doing that, and they started me on two new breathing treatments. I'm doing some old-timey medicinal treatments though,” she said with a chuckle, not elaborating much, except that it involved cinnamon whiskey.
Throughout it all, she has wowed others with her determination and resilience.
“One of the nurses had me for four nights, and when I got out on the floor, and she came to Edwin and told him, 'Mr. Hancock, I don't know if you know it or not, but your wife is tough as nails.'”
“The seriousness of the illness, I never got my head wrapped around, and I guess that was good that I didn't. They said I've been a fighter the whole time, and I said I didn't know any other way to be.”
However, she says there was another reason that she was still here.
“All of the prayers are another reason I am still here. Our preacher has told us, 'you don't know how many prayers have been said for you.'”
While in the hospital, she made a decision that at the time seemed like nothing, but now, it holds much more significance.
“She refused the ventilator and after all was said and done, they say that probably saved her.”
After that, she was released on April 17 to come home, the first time since Nov. 16 that she had seen her own house.
However, her fight was and still is far from over.
“She's making improvement. In fact, she got up yesterday or day before yesterday and made some banana bread for her therapist. That's the first time she attempted to do it on her own.”
She is on oxygen, and the tubing curls at her feet as she sits in her recliner.
She has to sleep sitting up, so they first started with power chairs, and then got an adjustable mattress.
She is still weak, and she has to carry a walker with her so that she can sit down when she gets weak.
However, she is determined to get through this.
“I'm trying to get up and stir around about every 45 minutes to an hour to get my strength built up, my durability, and my breathing better.”
She also starts pulmonary therapy this week, which will also help her reach her end goal.
She also found hobbies to occupy her time.
“I've been crocheting washcloths and baby blankets, that's something I can do when I'm resting.”
However, her recovery isn't the only thing on their minds in the aftermath, there is also the bills.
That, however, is where the community comes in. Her church has taken her under their wing and are hosting a benefit for her this Saturday, June 18, at the Sparta Opry.
She gets emotional at the thought of it, and thanks them through tears.
“All I can say is thank you. Because we really don't know what we're facing bill wise. I know there was medication they gave me in Tupelo that Medicare will not pay for, I don't know how much it was, and didn't care. I told the doctor, whatever it is, if it'll get me well, I'll pay $20 a month and keep on.”
However, after a life spent giving indiscriminately to those who needed it in the community, it is now the community's turn to return the favor, and knowing Chickasaw County, it is sure to be an amazing response.
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Some thoughts on fatherhood:
”When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” Mark Twain.
Instant availability without continuous presence is probably the best role a father can play.
It never occurs to a boy that someday he’ll be as dumb as his father.
With about 70 million dads in the United States, Father’s Day — celebrated on the third Sunday in June annually —is a special holiday for a lot of our nation’s population.
In the United States, Father’s Day was officially celebrated for the first time on June 19, 1910, in Washington state after a Spokane woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, wanted to establish a male equivalent to Mother’s Day.
She approached local churches, the YMCA, shopkeepers and government officials to encourage support for her idea.
It apparently wasn’t taken all that seriously.
Dodd’s June 19, 1910 Father’s Day observance didn’t get much support; even her hometown newspaper mocked the notion of a made-up holiday.
It wasn’t recognized as a federal holiday until President Lyndon Johnson issued a proclamation in 1966.
Today, Father’s Day is a major U.S. holiday. The National Retail Federation reports that the average American will spend $148.58 this Father’s Day and that total spending nationwide will exceed $17 billion.
The real impact of Father’s Day goes beyond greeting cards, neck ties and golf shirts, however.
It’s about celebrating the enduring legacy of fathers and the power they have to shape the lives of their sons and daughters.
Father’s role in American society is changing. The Pew Research Center reports that more dads are staying home to care for their kids than ever before. The percentage of fathers who are stay-at-home dads increased from 4% in 1989 to 7% in 2016.
That percentage has likely inched up even higher as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left many American dads without jobs.
The Pew Research Center also reports that it’s becoming less common for dads to be the family’s sole breadwinner. In 1970, fathers were the sole worker in nearly half of all American families. In recent years, that percentage decreased by nearly half. Couples in dual-income families now comprise the majority of two-parent families with children.
Dads are significantly more involved in child care than they were in the past. In recent years, fathers reported spending an average of eight hours a week on child care, which is nearly three times the total in 1965. That’s still far less than the 14 hours a week that the average American mother devotes to child care.
Survey after survey indicates fathers can serve as important role models for sons and daughters and make a lasting impact on their children’s lives.
The importance of fathers is undeniable. Currently, some 24 million American children — 34 percent — don’t live with their biological father, according to data from the 2010 U.S. Census.
Stepfathers, grandfathers, uncles, and even boyfriends step in and do well; but there remains a unique role a father plays in a child’s life.
A quality father-child affects healthy development on many levels, from language acquisition and cognition to physical and emotional development.
Scientific studies have shown that fathers who care for, nurture and play with their babies raise children with higher IQs and stronger language and cognitive skills.
In the end, being a father can connect, inspire and have an impact beyond this life.
As author and motivational speaker Leo Buscaglia observed, “If there is any immortality to be had among us human beings, it is certainly only in the love that we leave behind. Fathers like mine don’t ever die.”
Being a parent is one of life’s toughest jobs. On Sunday, we recognize all the fathers who care about their children and inspire them to reach their fullest potential.
We’d like to wish a Happy Father’s Day to the dads who serve as strong role models, and who take the time to invest in their kids.
Congratulations to all the fathers who understand the importance of “paying it forward” and spend quality time with children.
Their legacy lives on today and throughout the year in the hearts and minds of everyone who loves them.
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The Itawamba County Times will observe early deadlines for the July 6, edition of the paper. The Times will be closed on Monday, July 4, in observance of the Independence Day holiday.
Deadlines are as follows:
Legal Notices are due by 3 p.m on Wednesday, June 29
Classified ads are due by 4 p.m. on Thursday, June 30
Retail ads are due by 4 p.m. on Thursday, June 30
"This Week" community calendar of events are due by 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 30
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Former astronaut Mike Massimino speaks about his life and career during the Helen Foster Lecture Series at the Lee County Library, Tuesday night in Tupelo.
Former astronaut, bestselling author and "Big Bang Theory" guest star Mike Massimino speaks about his life and career during the Helen Foster Lecture Series at the Lee County Library, Tuesday night.
A small crowd gathers Tuesday night to hear former astronaut Mike Massimino speak about his life, career and adventures during the Helen Foster Lecture Series at the Lee County Library, Tuesday night in Tupelo.
Astronaut Mike Massimino speaks as Helen Foster Lecture Series guest
TUPELO • "The whole universe opened up," is the phrase veteran astronaut Mike Massimino used to describe his first moment floating in space; the same can be said for the attendees of the Helen Foster Lecture Series, Tuesday night at Lee County Library, as their eyes lit up with every detail Massimino described of his outer space adventures.
The free event is a longtime tradition for the library, made possible by an endowment fund created by its namesake, former librarian and chairman of the Lee County Library Board of Trustees, Helen Foster.
A New York Times bestselling author, Massimino released his autobiography titled, "A Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe” in 2016.
Massimino grew up in a working class, New York family with dreams of achieving the feats of his idol, Neil Armstrong.
"I wanted to grow up to be Neil Armstrong, so I asked my mom to help me with a costume," the astronaut told the crowd as he pointed to his childhood photo.
Although Massimino had early ambitions of reaching the stars, he realized quickly he had a fear of heights. However, as he was pursuing a collegiate engineering degree, his childhood dream resurfaced after the movie "The Right Stuff" debuted in 1983.
After three failed applications to NASA, the now mechanical engineering professor at Columbia University finally caught his break and joined NASA's Astronaut Group 16 in 1996.
"You've got to stick through, you can't give up on things," the New York native said about his many attempts to become an astronaut.
The theme of Tuesday evening's lecture was persistence no matter the endeavor.
"Persistence is always needed,” he said. “If you get to the astronaut program, it's not like it's time to sit back and relax. We all had our path to get here that took persistence and hard work. It's that same persistence that gets you the job you want to do or the school you want to go that's necessary after you get that opportunity.”
Even with all of Massimino's accolades, the New York Times bestselling author said his childhood dream wouldn't be complete without a photo for proof.
"In your very first spacewalk, the first thing you do that's in the checklist is get your picture taken,” he said.
The New York native traveled twice into space to help service the Hubble Space Telescope. Prior to his otherworldly endeavors, Massimino graduated from MIT and worked at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace in Houston, Texas, before being selected as an astronaut candidate in 1996 by NASA.
The Helen Foster Lecture Series has seen special guests, including authors, artists, journalists and more. Some notable past speakers include National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham, former William Morris Agency head Sam Haskell, nationally syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson and bestselling author John Grisham.
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STARKVILLE • From the U.S. Capitol to rural polling places in Mississippi in midterm congressional primaries, it has been a week of surprises and political drama that revolved around both intense political division and at the same time political apathy.
First, the focus on the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol brought into dramatic focus the ongoing basic partisan and philosophical division in the country as the nation watched stark new footage of the insurgence into the seat of American government by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
Recent NBC polling shows that about 45% of the U.S. public believes Trump has some level of direct responsibility for the riots — with 17% of those assigning sole responsibility and 28% saying Trump is “mainly” responsible. Those figures are down about 7% from NBC polling on the same question in 2021.
At the same time, polling also shows about 35% say Trump is “not really” responsible for the riots, numbers up about 6% from the same polling question in 2021. Why does that matter?
Mississippi Second District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Bolton, was the face of the House Select Committee when the prime-time hearing aired. Regardless of one’s opinion on Thompson’s politics, it is inarguable that Thompson was more than up to the task of leading the proceedings. Thompson was prepared, passionate, and righteously indignant about what he called “an attempted coup” by Trump and his followers.
Back in Mississippi — with midterm elections voter turnout abysmally low — the Fourth District Republican primary saw a remarkable tableau unfold. Incumbent GOP U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo was rejected by almost 68% of the district’s Republican voters and faces a runoff against Sheriff Mike Ezell. Remarkably, the other GOP challengers to Palazzo joined forces the next day to formally endorse Ezell in the runoff.
Palazzo then did something even more remarkable — as an incumbent, he issued a debate challenge to Ezell. That’s not something one sees often in Mississippi politics.
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Now what I’m about to write is not aimed at any school superintendent, school board member or teacher at Pontotoc City School, North Pontotoc County School or South Pontotoc County School.
This is not intended as a criticism of anyone or attempting to play politics. I believe that the school officials, administrators and teachers are striving to provide a safe, quality education to every child.
But the mass murder of 19 innocent elementary kids and two of their teachers in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24 is another wake up call to the false sense of security we currently have in place at the three school systems in Pontotoc County.
My intent in writing this is to urge the parents and grandparents of each child in the city and county school systems to communicate the need for more personnel and safety measures at all school campuses.
The May 2022 inflation rate was set at 8.6% last week and gas prices have more than doubled in the past two months. Everything, including food, costs more and more. The school folks are watching pennies just like the rest of us.
Where will we find the money needed to make our schools safer?
Pontotoc City School has Pontotoc Elementary School, D.T. Cox Elementary, Pontotoc Middle School, Pontotoc Junior High and Pontotoc High School.
Covering a wide area, the Pontotoc High School Campus includes the high school, the Fred’s annex, the band hall building (which includes some classrooms), the track and soccer field. Pontotoc Elementary is on Dowdy Street, D.T. Cox is on Clark Street and the Middle School and Junior High face Oxford Street.
North Pontotoc has the Upper Elementary campus (on old Hwy 15) and the four lane Highway 15 campus has the elementary, junior high and high school buildings.
All grades at South Pontotoc are located on the same campus.
Pontotoc City Schools have three school resource officers to cover all five campuses.
North Pontotoc has one school officer at the Upper Elementary campus and one officer for the entire high school/jr. high, elementary campus.
South Pontotoc has one school officer.
I know each of these officers at all three schools. They are trustworthy and trained. I believe that each of them would lay down their life to save a child or teacher’s life.
But more school officer personnel are needed. If any of those officers are shot, there is no backup on site.
Yes, when 911 is alerted to a school shooting help would come running, including the Pontotoc County Sheriff’s Dept., the Pontotoc Police Dept., Ecru Police Dept., Sherman Police Dept. and Highway Patrol officers.
But it would take precious minutes to arrive.
Security cameras are needed in each room, hallway, and all four sides of each building. Security cameras are needed so that the entire campus grounds are visible.
During every minute of every school day someone must be employed to watch the security camera footage.
Perimeter fencing is needed along the boundaries of all school property to serve as a defensive perimeter.
At the school entrance a guard station is needed to monitor everyone who drives or walks onto campus.
The shooting must begin outside the school buildings.
You’re right, no plan is foolproof or perfect. There would still be school traffic morning and afternoon.
Perhaps some folks would argue that you’re making the schools into prisons.
Millions of dollars of your tax money are spent each year to keep the criminals and thugs locked up inside prisons and jails.
I’m for spending whatever it takes to try and keep mass murderers out of the classrooms. Security wouldn’t make it a prison, it would look like a safer school.
We keep our homes locked. The banks have locks, alarms, cameras and vaults to safeguard money. Businesses have locks and cameras.
Surely our children and grandchildren are more precious than any other treasure we guard on this earth.
And yes, security measures are only as effective as those who are sworn to carry them out. We can’t find out AFTER a shooting that a camera or alarm wasn’t working.
Let’s get back to the money this will cost.
On Thursday, June 9, new legislation, the Safe Schools Act, was introduced in the U.S. Senate and House seeking access to $150-billion of available COVID-19 relief funds that have yet to be spent by schools.
The bill would allow schools that received COVID-19 relief funding use untouched money to equip their facilities with “locks, panic buttons, individual room security systems, video surveillance and hire armed school resource officers."
There is no “federal or state money.” Every cent of federal and state funds is your tax money—your money!
We are currently in the process of electing U.S. Representatives. Incumbent Senator Roger Wicker, proud Pontotoc native, has pull and power in Washington, D.C.
The Pontotoc County school board is elected by residents of Pontotoc County (or at least by those who are not too lazy to get out and vote). In the Pontotoc City Schools, three school board members are appointed by the Pontotoc Board of Aldermen (also folks you elect). The other two Pontotoc City School board members are elected by voters in the Pontotoc Separate School District.
If you are interested in increasing safety at the county and city schools in Pontotoc, I challenge you to pick up and phone and tell your school board members, Senator Wicker and Congressman Trent Kelly just how precious your children and grandchildren are.
If you don’t call your elected officials, don’t expect anyone else to do it either.
Tell them we need funding to hire more folks, buy cameras and build fences. School officers must be equipped with automatic weapons at all times.
If federal funds fall through, tell your school boards to put on the millage and we’ll pay for it ourselves.
You’re right, we don’t have the money. But do we need to wait until we bury 19 children and two teachers before we find it?
South Pontotoc
Pontotoc City School
Pontotoc Middle School
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Beyond the Call of Duty - End of Watch Ride to Remember will be riding into the Pontotoc Police Department parking lot (225 W. Reynolds St, Pontotoc) on Tuesday, June 28, 2022, at 3:00 pm in honor of late Pontotoc Police Sergeant Jeffrey Turner.
Sgt. Turner died on December 27, 2021, of COVID at the Baptist Hospital in Oxford. A native of Pontotoc, the 57-year-old Turner joined the Pontotoc Police Department in June 2019 after having worked for the Sherman Police Dept. for many years.
Pontotoc Police Chief Randy Tutor said, "Sgt. Turner was a very good officer, husband and father."
"To me, his death is no different than if he had stopped a car and gotten shot. He caught COVID doing his duties as a police officer."
The End of Watch Ride to Remember is a group of motorcycle riders from the state of Washington escorting a 40' trailer across the country to honor fallen officers from the prior year.
In 2020 the group rode 18,000 miles, in honor of 146 officers killed in the line of duty In 2019 .
In 2021 over 84 days, the group rode 22,300 miles in honor of 339 officers killed in the line of duty.
In 2022 organizers said the group will be honoring an unprecedented 600 fallen officers killed in the line of duty in 2021, beginning June 1st, 2022. Almost 21,000 miles and 79 days.
Founder, Jagrut Shah, a former deputy sheriff, says they want to show departments and their families who have lost partners and friends they are not alone. "I wanted to bridge this gap that we have and give back to the departments and let the surviving officers and their families know that their loss has not been forgotten,”
The organizations' event name is based on an officer's "End of Watch". An End of Watch Call or Last Radio Call is a ceremony in which a police dispatcher issues a final call to a fallen officer over the radio, followed by silence. All officers in that department hear the call, and observe the silence, remembering their fallen brother or sister.
Beyond the Call of Duty Is an organization that, through its "End of Watch Ride to Remember" event, recognizes police officers throughout the nation who died while In the line of duty.
Last year, the End of Watch Ride honored 339 fallen officers across the country. This year, 600 officers lost their lives while serving their community. End of Watch Ride to Remember is on a mission to pay their respects to each of them and assist the families of the fallen however they can.
"A peaceful community is a prosperous community and we owe a debt of gratitude to those officers who make it possible for us to live in a peaceful and free society," ride officials said.
To find out more and see all of the cities the End of Watch Ride will be visiting this year, please visit our website: www.endofWatchride.com.
Jeffrey Turner
Randy Tutor
Pontotoc Police Department
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A crowd gathered on Main Street in Ripley on Friday, June 3 for the ongoing Summer Concert Series held every Friday until June 24.
A large crowd gathered to enjoy a night of music the evening of Friday, June 3, for the Josh Knighton, Vanessa Winter, Bob Ray concert in the Summer of Music on Main Concert Series.
Since Friday, May 27 and every Friday in June, Kudzu 104.9 has hosted host three songwriters in a Nashville Style Songwriter round from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. The public is invited to enjoy the show on FM radio or Kudzu App or, at the live show on the courthouse square in Ripley. A food truck will be available, and both Grace Eatery and Jefferson St. Tap Room will both be open during the concerts.
The final two concerts will be June 17: John Spears, Jessica Horton, Chance Moore, and June 24: Chance Stanley, Jodie Ross, Brian Harrison.
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Coaches shouldn't throw their hands up with NIL, Kermit Davis says. He sees it as an opportunity for Ole Miss.
Good coaches never stop recruiting, and Kermit Davis was recruiting on Tuesday night in Tupelo.
He was recruiting you, your best friend, your neighbor and your cousin.
He was recruiting the masses.
Davis, the Ole Miss men's basketball coach, along with other coaches and administrators met with fans and supporters at the BancorpSouth Arena as part of the annual Rebel Road Trip.
He knows he doesn’t have a stranglehold on the masses in Mississippi.
Davis grew up watching has dad, Kermit Davis Sr., coach basketball at Mississippi State and later played for the Bulldogs himself.
He understands the dynamics.
But in the bold new world of Name, Image and Likeness, Davis believes the Ole Miss masses can make a difference.
NIL, a year old in Mississippi in about two weeks, allows college athletes to earn money from third parties.
Cynics refer to NIL as “Now It’s Legal.”
It’s been a largely football-driven discussion in its first year and was one of the big topics at the SEC business meetings in Destin earlier this month.
A number of coaches and administrators would like to see federal oversight to create a level playing field across the country. That’s not likely to happen before sometime in 2023 at the earliest.
Some, Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach for one, believe guidelines should come from the schools.
Regardless of how NIL takes shape in the future, Davis sees the present as a chance to create momentum with help from The Grove Collective and others.
“This could be a great opportunity for Ole Miss to jump ahead. If you sit here and bellyache and hope it goes away and that everything’s going to change … There may be some parameters around it, but it’s not going away,” he said.
All returning Ole Miss men's basketball players have some sort of NIL deal, and new players will join in soon.
Among the early concerns with NIL was that schools like Ole Miss and Mississippi State would be unable to keep pace with schools with larger enrollments and bigger budgets.
Davis believes Ole Miss basketball can be “really, really competitive” in the NIL game.
He also said his recruiting isn’t only about NIL. Prospects ask questions, and he answers them the best that he can.
“It’s not 1,000 percent NIL. That’s part of it, sure, but it’s still your campus, your face, the facilities, the families and how they feel. There’s still a lot that goes into signing players.”
And that’s where the masses come in.
“Big gifts are great, but we need the masses to join in,” Davis said. “I think that’s the nature of the Ole Miss family, and I have a lot of positive thoughts that will happen.”
Kermit Davis
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In this September 2020 photo, tons of dirt was moved to make ready the site at Fawn Grove Industrial Park. Grant funding totaling $2.1 million allowed the industrial park to expand its sewer capacity to support a maximum of 2,000 jobs.
Board of supervisors approves local tax exemptions, tables one
The Itawamba County Board of Supervisors voted to approve tax exemptions for a number of local industries and agreed to table one.
The board tabled a $4.1 million exemption requested by Toyota Boshoku for machinery and equipment. Their reason is pending a discussion between the board and Toyota concerning the covenant agreement between the two over Fawn Grove Industrial Park. The board hopes to bring Toyota to the table prior to their June 21 meeting to discuss the agreement. The deadline for tax exemption approval is July 1.
Recent improvements made by the Town of Mantachie through an ARC grant matched 70/30 by the city, will help support the growth of the Fawn Grove Industrial Park as well as the city of Mantachie as a whole.
Grant funding totaling $2.1 million allowed the industrial park to expand its sewer capacity to support a maximum of 2,000 jobs.
The board voted to approve tax exemptions for five other local businesses;
• Mueller Copper Tube - $11.6 million for machinery and new equipment; $1.6 million for work-in-progress; and $6.4 million in raw materials
• F.L. Crane and Sones - $460K for machinery and equipment
• Homan Industries - $169K for new equipment
• Marietta Wood - $970K for work-in-progress
• Marietta Dry Kiln - $752K for machinery and equipment
Tax exemptions are typically requested by the companies and are granted for a variety of reasons, including economic development and to spur job growth.
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Anthony Bollinger, Sonny Boone, Larry Eades, and Bobby Pierce have made a unique musical connection that stretches from Calhoun County to Itawamba County.
JOEL MCNEECE I CALHOUN JOURNAL
Bobby Pierce and Sonny Boone take the stage at the Tombigbee Jamboree during the recent celebration of Pierce's new single, "I Can't Hide My American Pride."
Bobby Pierce, of Fulton, had a lot of success in the 1960s and 70s. Among his many musical accomplishments was writing a song called “Loser’s Lounge” that Ringo Starr, of Beatles’ fame, recorded on his album “Beaucoups of Blues.”
Anthony Bollinger, along with Larry Eades and Vincent Anderson congratulates Bobby Pierce on his new patriotic single, "I Can't Hide My American Pride."
By Joel McNeece Calhoun County Journal
Four men with long histories in music have found common ground at Cabin 237 Studios in Chickenbone, just east of Bruce.
“We’ve always done music in our family. The recording side I’ve been fooling with since I was a kid,” said Anthony Bollinger, who established the music studio beside his home several years ago. “Me, Eddie (Bollinger) and David Holloway had a studio in town when we had Mid-South (Marketing). I decided after we got out of the (Bollinger Family) Theater I wanted to pursue this. Now I spend an awful lot of time out here.”
The walls of the studio are filled with memorabilia from the Bollinger Family performances and The C’s days –Anthony’s late father Dewey’s longtime band. Two seats along one wall are from the front row of the former music theater in Bruce.
“That makes it feel like my place,” Anthony said leaning back in his chair in front of a giant sound board. Anthony’s studio has five different record labels – four that he owns and one he is partners in along with Larry Eades of Itawamba County.
“I’ve been more focused on an artist development program the last several years and that has now come together,” he said.
What’s also come together is a group of friends with a memorable past, and future, in music.
Bobby Pierce, of Fulton, is one of those. He had a lot of success in the 1960s and 70s. Among his many musical accomplishments was writing a song called “Loser’s Lounge” that Ringo Starr, of Beatles’ fame, recorded on his album “Beaucoups of Blues.” Cal Smith also had a country hit with the tune.
“I started playing Bluegrass when I was a kid. I moved away from Fulton when I was 15 and started playing clubs,” Bobby said. “I wound up in Chicago and met up with some people who liked what I did and it all escalated from there.”
He toured all around the world for decades and did a lot of session work in Nashville for various artists.
“Bobby has had 35 national releases,” Larry said. “He’s really done quite a lot.”
Bobby moved back to Fulton when his mother got sick and has been recovering for years from a bad motorcycle wreck. He’s been a lifelong Harley-Davidson rider. Another of the “mafia,” as they affectionately call each other, is Sonny Boone.
Sonny was born and raised in Mississippi but moved to Texas when he was 13. He started playing music around age 16 and got a job at radio station KTRM in Beuamont. George Jones was a disc jockey there and J.P. Richardson, better known as the “Big Bopper” was the program director.
“George and J.P. didn’t have record deals at the time, but they were local heroes and they would come out to a local club and play,” Sonny said. “I ended up going on the road working for J.P. up until he got killed.” He died in a plane crash with legendary rockers Buddy Holly and Richie Vallens. Sonny had a theater in Beaumont similar to the Bollinger Family Theater in Bruce that he performed at for years.
“I’d probably still be there, but I just got burnt out,” he said.
He also spent years playing bass for Barbara Mandrell and many other major acts as well as singing harmony for many top artists in studio in Nashville.
His long musical resume also includes a long time of playing regularly at the famous country and western honky tonk Gilley’s in Houston.
“I’ve been around and on the road plenty, more than I want,” Sonny said with a smile.
His wife is a native of Tupelo and they moved back to Mantachie several years ago. That’s when he and Bobby met up along with Larry and they all began playing the Tombigbee Jamboree every Saturday night, and still do.
“We have a good time,” Larry said. “It’s funny, we were all in the music business together but never ran across each other.”
“Not until we all came back to Mississippi,” Sonny said.
Anytime Bobby and Sonny get together the stories are plentiful. “I did everyting you can think of on the road,” Bobby said. “I got me an education that millions of dollars couldn’t buy.”
He recalled some rough spots up and down the East Coast he played, including many with the chicken wire up in front of the stage reminiscent of the movie “Road House.”
“If you didn’t do what they wanted right away they would be slinging the bottles at you,” Bobby said.
“We played in a place outside of Beaumont called the Hayseed Club,” Sonny said. “That’s exactly what it was. Had the chicken wire in front of stage. It was rough.”
“The road is tough,” Larry said. “I like being home more. I decided my talents were more in producing.”
That has led the three to Calhoun County to team up with Anthony at his studio.
“I’ve been in a lot of studios and this little studio here puts out as good a sound as any I’ve ever been in,” Sonny said.
Sonny’s newest album will come out in June and is called “Memories on Paper.”
“That’s the title song on the album that Anthony wrote,” Sonny said. “I love the old type country. I try to keep it going.”
“We do all the tracks from scratch from here,” Anthony said. “We have a lot of musicians that come in to play. Lauren Stewart, a 14-year-old musical prodigy from Fulton, has come and played fiddle on a lot of tracks for us.”
“Eddie played some of the best steel guitar I’ve heard in my life, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my brother. Lauren on the fiddle just blew me away. She’s something else,” Anthony said.
Bobby also has a new song coming out entitled “American Pride” that he authored himself.
“I’m always writing songs. I’ve got stacks of them,” Bobby said. “Larry heard it and he talked me into coming down here to Mr. Bollinger’s and we recorded it.”
“We’ve done mostly gospel here – southern, comtemporary, bluegrass, all of it,” Anthony said of the studio. “These are our first pure country products. We’re proud of them.”
They recently shot the video to go with Bobby’s new song and are just waiting on the album to come back on Sonny’s new project.
“My whole thing now is I just want to keep old country alive,” Sonny said. “I just love it and know there’s a lot out there that love it like I do.”
“I just want to stay in the business writing,” Bobby said. “I’ll go wherever I need to go, but happy to just keep writing.”
“They have so much history and accomplishments. They still have a lot to give,” said Larry, who produced a lot of records for years through his Triangle Records label in Tupelo.
At the bare minimum the foursome cherish the opportunities to get together in the studio.
“We’ve become the best of friends,” Sonny said. “We always have a good time and to be able to get together and work on these projects is great fun,” Bobby said.
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The Bay Tree Council for the Performing Arts in Red Bay, AL announces its fourth and final production of the season, Leading Ladies, written by Ken Ludwig and directed by Mary-Elizabeth Moore. Performance dates are June 23-25, 2022 at 7:00 PM and Sunday, June 26, 2022 at 2:00 PM. Tickets will go on sale Monday, June 13, 2022 at the Weatherford Center in Red Bay, AL. You may go by between the hours of 2:00-4:00 PM weekdays to purchase your tickets or call 256-356-9829 to reserve them. Please leave a message if no answer and your call will be returned.
For this production, a dinner is available on Thursday, June 23rd and Sunday, June 26th. Since the BTCPA is charged per plate, those tickets must be reserved in advance and confirmed. You may contact Beth Hammock at 256-668-0045 for more information. This play was performed by BTCPA 14 years ago with Zeb Wallace returning in the same role from that production.
The cast includes: Theron Struzik, Zeb Wallace, Brandy Cook, Molly Thorn, Chris Perea, Carol Murphree, Mary-Elizabeth Moore, and Dominic Rogers.
Leading Ladies: In this hilarious comedy by the author of Lend Me A Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo, two English Shakespearean actors, Jack and Leo, find themselves so down on their luck that they are performing "Scenes from Shakespeare" on the Moose Lodge circuit in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. When they hear that an old lady in York, PA is about to die and leave her fortune to her two long lost English nephews, they resolve to pass themselves off as her beloved relatives and get the cash. The trouble is, when they get to York, they find out that the relatives aren't nephews, but nieces! Romantic entanglements abound, especially when Leo falls head-over-petticoat in love with the old lady's vivacious niece, Meg, who's engaged to the local minister. Meg knows that there's a wide world out there, but it's not until she meets "Maxine and Stephanie" that she finally gets a taste of it.
This production wraps up the BTCPA’s 25th Season. Over the years, they have produced over 75 productions with hundreds of actors, directors, and behind the scenes individuals. The BTCPA would like to thank all of those who have been involved over the years and the wonderful community who continues to support local theatre.
Bay Tree
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The City of Fulton’s annual Independence Day celebration and Fireworks Festival is set to bring back some favorite events this year as well as add a few new ones.
Scheduled for Friday night, July 1, at 5 p.m. in The Grove on the Itawamba Community College campus, the annual event will have plenty of “fun” activities preceding the fireworks display. Several food trucks and independent groups are scheduled to be on-hand with food, competitions, and activities.
A pie baking contest will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. Contestants who would like to try their hand (or stomach) in the watermelon eating contest, must be registered by 7 p.m. The contest will begin at 7:50 p.m. Turtle races are scheduled for the same time, 7 p.m. registration with the race beginning promptly at 7:50 p.m. Contestants must bring their own turtle.
Local bands and individuals are scheduled to entertain throughout the night with the fireworks set to begin at 9 p.m. Attendees are urged to bring their own lawn chairs and blankets for the event.
Fulton’s Fireworks Festival is one of the largest events held by the city throughout the year.
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The Stewart Street entrance to the City of Fulton’s ballpark has been reopened.
The entrance was closed several weeks ago after the board discussed safety issues with children crossing the road to get to the playground. The city’s intention was for traffic to be diverted to Spring Street and enter through the back of the ballpark. Instead of taking the suggested route, drivers were taking Mattox Street which is ten times more densely populated than Stewart Street.
Complaints from residents of Mattox Street who appeared before the city’s board of aldermen last week prompted the change. Speeding and increased traffic were cited as an issue by the residents.
“We did a poor job of advertising the change,” Alderman-at-Large Brad Chatham told the board. “
After much back-and-forth discussion, the board opted to reopen the Stewart Street entrance with the addition of speed bumps, a stop sign, and increased police patrol with no tolerance for drivers who speed.
The Spring Street entrance will remain open.
“One of our long-term goals is to have one main entrance to the park from Access Road, but until then we must drive slowly and watch out for young children,” Mayor Emily Quinn said.
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As part of President Biden’s Unity Agenda commitment to support the nation’s Veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs is adding nine rare respiratory cancers to the list of presumed service-connected disabilities due to military environmental exposures to fine particulate matter.
The following list of rare respiratory cancers have been added to VA’s regulations through an Interim Final Rule published in the Federal Register on April 26, 2022:
• Squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx
• Squamous cell carcinoma of the trachea
• Adenocarcinoma of the trachea
• Salivary gland-type tumors of the trachea
• Adenosquamous carcinoma of the lung
• Large cell carcinoma of the lung
• Salivary gland-type tumors of the lung
• Sarcomatoid carcinoma of the lung
• Typical and atypical carcinoid of the lung
VA determined through a focused review of scientific and medical evidence there is biological plausibility between airborne hazards and carcinogenesis of the respiratory tract—and the unique circumstances of these rare cancers warrant a presumption of service connection.
The rarity and severity of these illnesses and the reality these conditions present, is a situation where it may not be possible to develop additional evidence, prompted VA to take this action.
“Last year we made promises to fundamentally change and improve how we establish and expedite presumptions—now we’re keeping them,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “We are taking a new approach to presumptives that takes all available science into account, with one goal in mind—getting today’s Veterans—and Vets in the decades ahead—the benefits they deserve as fast as possible.”
VA will begin processing disability compensation claims for Veterans who served any amount of time in the Southwest Asia theater of operations beginning Aug. 2, 1990, to the present, or Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Syria or Djibouti beginning Sept. 19, 2001, to the present.
Any Veteran who has or had one of the listed cancers at any time during or after separation from military service may be eligible for disability compensation benefits. VA will contact impacted Veterans and survivors to inform them about their eligibility and will provide information on how to apply.
Veterans, survivors or dependents who had claims previously denied for any of these respiratory cancers are encouraged to file a supplemental claim for benefits. If you are a Veteran, survivor or dependent applying for the first time, file a new claim. Veterans in Itawamba County can contact Itawamba County Veteran’s Affair Officer Jason Baker weekdays at 662-862-2841. Veterans and survivors may also visit VA.gov or call toll-free at 800-827-1000.
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ABERDEEN – Beginning with School Year 2022-2023, the Aberdeen School District will have new faces in a few prominent positions following Aberdeen School Board approval June 8.
Kennetra Smith, who has served as principal at Franklin Academy in Columbus, was approved as Belle-Shivers Middle School’s new principal.
The school board also approved two new assistant principals for the school – Alexis Bush-Logan, who has served in the Starkville School District, and James Rush, who has served with Jackson Public Schools.
At Aberdeen Elementary School, Natasha Cheeks, who has served in the Columbus School District, was approved as assistant principal. Outgoing AES Assistant Principal Olivia Ulbrich was approved as the district’s special education director.
As far as another change within the district, the Aberdeen Board of Aldermen approved to advertise for a seat on the Aberdeen School Board following an executive session June 7.
School board member Sandra Peoples submitted her resignation from the position. The new incoming school board member will serve in the term until December 2025.
School board members also approved a motion June 8 to secure a 3.5 percent interest rate for 12 years for a three-mill note. The note is for maintenance needs, including a roof at Aberdeen Elementary School.
Sandra Peoples
Natasha Cheeks
Aberdeen Elementary School
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