Free Republic

At the direction of Governor Haley Barbour, MississippiRelief.com has been established. Our friend, Josh Gregory of the Magnolia Report was the key guy in getting this done. Most of the events of the Mississippi delegation at the Republican National Convention will turn into fundraisers with MississippiRelief.com as one of the primary beneficiaries.

I took some video before this saying how the storm won't be that bad, I was mistaken.

NEW ORLEANS -- Residents who try to ride out Hurricane Gustav will be making the biggest mistake of their lives, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin warned on Saturday. Nagin Warns Of 'Storm Of Century'! Video "You need to be scared. You need to be concerned. You need to get your butts out of New Orleans. This is the storm of the century," Nagin said. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for Westbank starting at 8 a.m. Sunday, and mandatory evacuations of the Eastbank will begin at noon. "Riding it out would be the biggest mistake you could make in your life,"...

LAUREL, Miss. — The largest single-workplace immigration raid in U.S. history has caused panic among Hispanic families in this small southern Mississippi town, where federal agents rounded up nearly 600 plant workers suspected of being in the country illegally. One worker caught in Monday's sweep at the Howard Industries transformer plant said fellow workers applauded as immigrants were taken into custody. Federal officials said a tip from a union member prompted them to start investigating several years ago.

Louisiana, Mississippi keeping eye on Gustav NEW ORLEANS -- As Friday's third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, officials in Louisiana and Mississippi are keeping an eye on a storm named Gustav. The storm was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm after moving over Haiti but forecasters expect it to regain strength and move into the Gulf of Mexico in a few days. Long-range forecasts say the storm could be a major hurricane threatening the central Gulf Coast by Monday. In New Orleans, where thousands were stranded after Katrina hit and flooded most of the city, officials are making...

“Families have been separated and children are without their mother,” said Pastor Roberto Velez of the Iglesia Cristiana Peniel (Peniel Christian Church) as he continuously worked to talk to many of those affected by federal agents’ roundup of illegal immigrants Monday. “There are some situations where both parents are gone.” Pastor Roberto and Maria Velez have been faced with numerous questions from their congregants about the welfare of family members and people’s nationality. ---snip “We have been getting calls from everywhere,” Velez said. “I’m receiving calls from everywhere about everything. I’m getting calls from Mexico as well as many places...

This is a compilation from Y'all Politics with links to the various sources. There's a lot of background information on the Scruggs case for those unfamiliar with the details. _________________________________________________ The Mess In Mississippi: The Joe Biden Connection http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/12/10/the-mess-in-mississippi-the-joe-biden-connection/ In case you missed it, here’s the NYT’s recent contribution to the Mess in Mississippi — aka the criminal charges against plaintiffs lawyer Dickie Scruggs and four others on charges that they attempted to bribe a judge. (December 10, 2007,Wall Street Journal Blog) Snip --- Patterson and Balducci had grand ambitions — they wanted their firm to become a leading Democratic...

The tropical system currently over Hispanola has been teasing weather watchers for days, as hurricane hunters were unable to locate a surface center of circulation. Meanwhile, the system has looked remarkably like a tropical depression for greater than 24 hours. Local Florida weather forecasters are urging Floridians to keep a close eye on this system. Updates:Atlantic Tropical Info Satellite:Visible Image LoopInfrared Image LoopWater Vapor Image LoopRGB (Vis/IR combo) Image LoopFunktop Image Loop Caribbean BuoysWestern Atlantic BuoysFlorida BuoysRadarPuerto RicoGuantanimo Bay CubaKey WestBahamasMiamiFlorida LoopStorm Track Models Category Wind Speed Barometric Pressure Storm Surge Damage Potential Tropical Depression < 39 mph < 34...

Gulfport's Brittney Reese is poised to bring a women's long jump medal home from the Olympics in Beijing. "Right now," Reese said in an e-mail from China, "I'm very excited and blessed." Reese had the best qualifying mark on Tuesday, a leap of 22 feet, 6½ inches, but the 12 competitors left will start with a clean slate Friday night at the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium. (The event will begin at about 6:20 a.m. CDT Friday.) "It's a whole other day. My last jump doesn't even matter," Reese said. It does put the former Gulfport High and Ole Miss star...

State House Member Tyrone Ellis (D-Starkville) received a travel voucher from the Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi) led House of Representatives to attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado next week for "educational" purposes. These expenditures are apparently approved by the House Management Committee chaired by Rep. J. P. Compretta (D - Bay St. Louis). The stated purpose of the trip was "educational". Ironically, they misspelled "Colorada".

Melanie Allen has been "scared to death" this week knowing her son was scheduled to begin a risky escape from the country of Georgia, where Russian troops are poised for further invasion. Lee Allen, 34, and his Georgian wife, Tiko, were to have become part of a caravan fleeing the war-torn country. It may be days before Melanie Allen learns if the couple made it out safely. She was at her Ocean Springs home Tuesday night with friends who are supporting her. -----snip On Monday, four days into the fighting as Russia seized several towns and a military base deep...

A few weeks ago, I watched a program that talked about a new technology for cleaning up oil spills. Hair, it seems has a natural affinity for oil, and a company figured out, that hair, woven into mats, can be dropped into an oil spill, and it soaks up oil 9 (like 12 fold), and any water that gets pulled in, rolls right off the mats like..water, when pulled out of the spill, but the oil...stays in the mats until they are wrung out. During the show they demonstrated it and it was impressive. The mats can be re-used about...

Breitbart reports that graffiti artists in LA are are increasingly gang-affiliated and are turning violent. Attacks and murders of citizens who catch them in the act are on the rise. Here's the money quote from a fed-up resident that sums up the situation nicely: "We live in the same community. We are all in this hellhole together."California is Liberalism's petri dish, and the experiment is turning putrid. Liberal politicians (yes, including Arnold) have brought the state to financial meltdown. Criminal gangs run rampant, energy is in short supply thanks to the environmental lobby, and businesses are being chased out by...

The Coast's law enforcement community reacted with shock and disbelief Sunday to the news that Frederick Gaston, a longtime, respected lawman and former police chief of Moss Point, was gunned down and killed in a would-be robbery in North Carolina over the weekend. North Carolina officials said Gaston, who most recently was an investigator for the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, had just checked into a motel in the city of Gastonia when he was killed in a parking lot about midnight Saturday. Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd said Gaston, who was also an Air Force Reserve officer, had stopped in...

Luckily Truman didn't think twice By Amanda Compton-Ortiz/amanda@dctribune.com Thursday, July 24, 2008 2:16 PM CDT A Sunday afternoon drive on his new 1300 Honda may have ended in disaster for 51-year-old Jim Kelder of Olive Branch, but thanks to the bravery of one young man his riding days aren't over yet. "I'm grateful there are people like him in this world," said Jim of 16-year-old Truman Gullett of Byhalia. "If it wasn't for him I don't think I'd still be standing here." As fate would have it, Jim, an employee at FedEx, and Truman, a freshman football player at Lewisburg...

PASCAGOULA -- Brandon Jones was 12 when Adrienne Klasky Graham's ex-husband gunned her down at a busy intersection in Pascagoula, but he remembers it and the effect it had on his community. His sister went to school with one of Adrienne's young sons. People he knew talked about it. "All of us living in Pascagoula in 1989 remember that day," said Jones, now a young attorney representing Pascagoula in the Legislature. "And to know that someone can shoot someone in the plain light of day and walk free less than 20 years later. The governor's action has broken open...

Froggie, the marble-eating Albino African Claw Frog, is home after recovering from innovative stomach surgery that allowed Dr. James Askew to remove three offending large glass beads - one clear, one turquoise, one blue. Admittedly, that's not normal frog food, but she was hungry. Vela Taconi thought Froggie was getting fat, so she cut back on "his" food. "His" is a key word because everyone thought the white aquatic frog was male. Wrong. --- SNIP ---- "I can't believe I've been so upset over a frog," Taconi admitted Thursday when the family came to retrieve Froggie. "But he, I...

(BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss.) - Some people receiving FEMA assistance admitted to NBC 15 cameras thet they are getting a free ride and not looking for work. We asked one of the nation's top democrats, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, where your tax dollars are really going. When NBC 15 News first met Gwenester Malone a month ago, she was receiving three catered meals a day, while housekeepers made sure her hotel room stayed clean. None of it was costing her a dime. "Since the storm, I haven't had any energy or pep to go get a job," Malone...

“I’m a strong opponent of illegal immigrants,” he said. “We’ve got to secure our borders.” Wicker, who has voted to increase funding to build a fence along the southern border and to add more border patrol agents to protect the border, said enforcement is a key. “We need to enforce the law and protect the border,” he said. “We should be able to tell businesses if someone is an illegal immigrant and then hold them accountable if they hire them after they have been informed.” Wicker said, however, he thinks one of the most important issues facing Americans is the...

GULFPORT --A small group of youngsters in sailboats made it safely back to shore Monday after one of them capsized in the Mississippi Sound during an afternoon thunderstorm, authorities said. "The storm came up on them and they were trying to get everybody back when it happened," said Fire Chief Pat Sullivan. ------ SNIP ------ "The most heroic job, in my opinion, was the boy that brought his boat back in by himself," Clark said. "It was incredible. He looked to be 11 or 12 years old, out there battling against God and nature in a little-bitty sailboat."

6/19/2008 - GREEN BAY BOTTOM, Iowa (AFPN) -- The men and women of the 185th Air Refueling Squadron from Sioux City, Iowa, are teaming with local farmers to maintain the 20 miles of levees, keeping the flooded Mississippi from inundating the 14 thousand acres of homes and farmland here. The river is flowing 23 feet over flood levels and 20 feet over the corn fields that line it near the farming community of Burlington in Green Bay Bottom, Iowa. "It would have been devastating without the (Air National) Guard here," said local resident Robert Mozingo, a retired mechanical engineer who...

Last Edited: Tuesday, 17 Jun 2008, 9:17 PM CDT Created: Tuesday, 17 Jun 2008, 4:33 PM CDT(KTVI - myFOXstl.com) -- An artists' town where the Mississippi River is expected to crest at record levels Friday was hanging on with prayers from strangers and volunteers from as far away as sympathetic New Orleans.

GRENADA, Miss. (AP) - State Rep. Sidney Bondurant of Grenada has switched to the Republican Party. He was elected in 2003 and 2007 as a conservative Democrat in House District 24 in Grenada, Calhoun and Yalobusha counties. Bondurant, 61, is a physician. He said he decided to change parties after talking with his family and friends. He said Republican Gov. Haley Barbour and others encouraged him to make the leap. This past January, Bondurant supported conservative Democrat Jeff Smith of Columbus as Smith tried unsuccessfully to unseat populist Democrat Billy McCoy as speaker of the 122-member House.

I am not an expert on campaign strategy, but I know a losing game plan when I see one. The Republican Party’s strategy in a series of special House elections this year has been to tie Democratic candidates to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. How’s that working? Three straight losses, all in congressional districts President Bush carried easily in 2004. Some strategy. John McCain may well win the presidential election, but at the congressional and grassroots level, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the GOP in a more severe state of disarray. The worst result yet has come from the...

In a major blow to national Republicans, a Mississippi congressional seat that once voted for President Bush by a twenty-five point margin elected a Democrat on Tuesday. Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers beat out Republican candidate Greg Davis, the mayor of Southaven, by a 54%-46% margin, a spread that several Republican strategists on Capitol Hill characterized as a startling wake-up call for a party in dire straits. Voters cast ballots for the fourth time in three months for the seat, vacated when Republican Roger Wicker was appointed to fill the remainder of Senator Trent Lott's term. After winning the...

Dems score a hat trick with specials TRIBUNE-REVIEW By Salena Zito Democrats scored a hat trick with their third special-election win in GOP-held House seats by winning tonight in Mississippi’s 1st District. This win follows Democratic victories in special elections in Illinois' 14th District in March and in Louisiana's 6th District 10 days ago.

Travis Childers, elected U.S. House, District 1, Mississippi. [Note: This is an AP bulletin - nothing follows]

I'm sure the Democrats are trying to convince people who voted in the Democrat Primary on March 11th that they can't vote Republican today. This is the general and you can vote for anyone on the ballot. Need to vote for Greg Davis (R) to keep the Dems from using another Democrat who is campaigning as a Conservative Travis Childers from adding to Pelosi's stable of reliable votes.

Democrat Travis W. Childers led the field and just narrowly missed the majority vote he needed for an outright victory in a special election held Tuesday in Mississippi’s 1st District. Childers now moves on to a May 13 runoff with Republican Greg Davis, the mayor of Southaven, in a district that has a conservative lean and usually votes strongly Republican in contests for federal office. Childers received 49.4 percent, just short of the 50 percent threshold, according to complete but unofficial returns. Davis received 46.3 percent of the vote and trailed Childers by more than 2,000 votes, staving off elimination...

Colonel Raymond and Chief Master Sgt. Timothy Omdal, 21st SW command chief, visited the detachment, based at Moron Air Base, Spain, to get a first-hand look at how the unit contributes to U.S. Strategic Command’s space control mission of detecting, tracking and identifying all manmade deep-space objects.

The latest-ever start to the Mississippi River navigation season in Minnesota is unfolding today. The David L. Griggs, a tow operated by General Electric Capital Corp., of Brownsville, Texas, is pushing 15 barges northward and should arrive in St. Paul between 9 and 10 this morning... The average opening date of the navigation season for the past 30 years has been March 20. In 2007, the first tow to make it to St. Paul arrived on March 29. This year's late start, due to unusually cold spring weather, breaks the previous late record of April 7, set in 1978

A disabled Biloxi Air Force veteran was one of two men arrested Tuesday on charges of lying about receiving military medals, including the Purple Heart. The Department of Veterans Affairs filed criminal complaints against Christopher Billeaud, 52, of Biloxi and John Wayne Lebo, 57, of Tylertown. Both men were released on unsecured bonds of $25,000 and $5,000, respectively. Both face a year in prison and $100,000 fines for each violation. Billeaud is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm and the Gulf Coast chapter president of the National Defense Transportation Association. He is accused of altering his discharge papers to indicate...

JACKSON – Legislation designed to crack down on illegal immigrants and the businesses that hire them was signed into law Monday by Gov. Haley Barbour, but not without reservations. In signing the legislation late Monday, Barbour released a statement asking the Legislature to modify the law he had just signed. Under the bill and now law, employers are required to check with the federal Electronic-Verification system to ensure potential employees are legal. Failure to do so could result in a business losing its license to operate in the state. Barbour said there are possible flaws in the e-verify system. "Mississippi's...

Tell Gov. Barbour to sign immigration enforcement bill! This is a special message for NumbersUSA members in Mississippi. Dear Mississippi friends, Last week, the Mississippi state legislature passed SB 2988, a bill requiring all employers in the state to use E-Verify to determine their employees’ eligibility to work in the United States. The bill, which passed the Senate 52-0 and passed the House 112-8, was sent to Governor Hayley Barbour (R) for signature. Today is the deadline for signing the bill. While campaigning for reelection in 2007, Governor Barbour ran on a platform that advocated cracking down on illegal immigration....

Scruggs Was Charged With Conspiring to Pay a State Judge $40,000 in Cash in Exchange for a Favorable Ruling Attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, famous for winning billions of dollars from the big tobacco companies, has pleaded guilty to charges of trying to bribe a Mississippi judge, according the Associated Press.

Barack Obama won the Mississippi Democratic primary Tuesday, FOX News projects, giving him an expected but vital victory as he tries to fracture the momentum Hillary Clinton picked up with her wins one week earlier. John McCain won on the GOP side, but the Arizona senator has already locked down the nomination and faced no major rivals Tuesday. Polls consistently showed that Obama was favored to win in Mississippi. The state’s sizable black electorate was poised to give him a big boost, as it has in other southern states like Georgia and South Carolina. Mississippi offers 33 delegates.

Barack Obama has overwhelming support in the few polls conducted in Mississippi. The latest, by InsiderAdvantage, puts him at +17% and suggests that he will have "a solid win" today. This poll and all of Mississippi's polls were weighted to reflect the expected demographics of voters in the state as a whole. That is, the pollsters adjusted the numbers to account for age, race, and gender. All three categories are important predictors of voting behavior, particularly in this primary contest. But the pollsters forgot one important thing: not all districts are demographically equal. That omission may cause Obama to lose...

Okay people, I'm open for suggestions. Here's what the ballot will probably look like. Who would y'all suggest we elect? Mississippi Voter Guide All Races  Presidential Race Democrats: • Hillary Clinton • Mike Gravel • Barack Obama Republicans: • Mike Huckabee • Alan Keyes • John McCain • Ron Paul Other: • Jesse Johnson (Green) • Cynthia McKinney (Green) • Kent Mesplay (Green) • Kat Swift (Green) Independents: • Ralph Nader (i) = incumbent  U.S. Senate, MS Democrats: • Erik Fleming • Ronnie Musgrove • Shawn O'Hara Republicans: • Thad Cochran ( i ) • Roger Wicker ( i )...

REFUGIO, Texas - With an abandoned Wild West-vintage town of storefronts slumbering just a block from old US 77, tiny Refugio is a place where myth and reality coexist in a ghostly silence. more stories like this Obama faces heat over aide's NAFTA remarks to Canadians Texas, Ohio could decide Dem nomination Canada says didn't misrepresent Obama over NAFTA McCain tags Dems on trade treaty NAFTA seen differently in Ohio, Texas And now this South Texas outpost is swept up in one of the more intriguing tests of myth vs. reality in today's political life: the battle over the so-called...

Harrison County Democrats held a caucus on Saturday, and nobody showed up. The good weather, said party chairman Andrew "FoFo" Gilich, was partly to blame. "It was a nice day. It was probably hard to break away," he said, referring to family activities. The caucus is held every four years, he said, and has two goals: to elect delegates for the county's Executive Committee, which oversees elections for a four year term, and to elect county delegates for conventions. Local delegates help select national delegates for the Democratic National Convention, set for August in Denver.

Federal agents are investigating whether former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott knowingly played a role in an alleged conspiracy in 2006 to influence a Mississippi judge presiding over a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against famed plaintiff attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, according to people familiar with the situation. Mr. Scruggs and several associates are scheduled to stand trial March 31 on charges that they offered $40,000 in bribes to State Court Judge Henry L. Lackey in return for a favorable ruling in a lawsuit against Mr. Scruggs over $26.5 million in legal fees. Mr. Lott, who is a brother-in-law to Mr. Scruggs, unexpectedly...

PARIS (AFP) - The Mississippi Delta is sinking fast, posing a challenge for the rebuilding of coastal Louisiana after the devastation wrought in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, a study released Sunday confirmed. Across large swathes of southern Louisiana, average annual subsidence of five-to-10 millimetres (0.2 to 0.4 inches) have contributed to sea-level rise, shoreline erosion and wetland loss, they said. The findings have implications for delta regions around the world -- home to tens of millions of people -- already threatened by rising sea levels caused by global warming, the researchers told AFP. But the study, published in Nature, also...

New Mississippi delta would limit hurricane damage 13:20 18 February 2008 NewScientist.com news service Phil McKenna The proposed diversion would create up to 1000 square kilometres of new delta by 2100 (Image: Science) Diverting parts of the Mississippi would create up to 1000 square kilometres of new wetlands between New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico, forming a vital storm surge buffer against hurricanes, researchers say. The formation of new delta lands could also help stem ongoing coastal erosion without disrupting important shipping traffic. "The scientific and engineering barriers are easily overcome," says Gary Parker, a geologist and engineer...

Two weeks after federal officials allowed Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour to divert $600 million in post-Katrina housing funds to a massive expansion of the state’s port, the governor is seeking to shift another $25 million in hurricane recovery money to a highway improvement project far from the storm zone, which would chiefly benefit a new Toyota plant being built in the area. Barbour’s money-moving efforts, which have been criticized by Democrats in Congress and the state Legislature, come as other officials seek additional funding for what they say are unmet needs left by the devastating August 2005 hurricane.

Excerpt: January 31, 2008 No fat people allowed: Only the slim will be allowed to dine in public! It has actually happened. Lawmakers have proposed legislation that forbids restaurants and food establishments from serving food to anyone who is obese (as defined by the State). Under this bill, food establishments are to be monitored for compliance under the State Department of Health and violators will have their business permits revoked. House Bill 282 was introduced in the 2008 Mississippi legislative session on Friday by Representative W.T. Mayhall, Jr., a retired pharmaceutical salesman with DuPont-Merk. Its co-authors are Bobby Shows, a...

JACKSON (AP) — Sen. Nolan Mettetal, whose win in the Democratic Primary was disputed last year, said Wednesday he's leaving the party to become a Republican. "Switching is not the proper terminology. I'm just joining a party. The (Democratic) Party abandoned me," said Mettetal of Sardis, who has served in the Senate since 1996. Before Mettetal's switch, there were 28 Democrats and 24 Republicans in the Mississippi Senate. The balance is now 27-25. Mettetal said Wednesday that he felt the Democratic Party didn't support him in last year's election. He represents District 10, which covers Panola and Tate counties. Mettetal...

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON MS 719 PM CST FRI JAN 25 2008 MSZ028>033-037-260600- /O.UPG.KJAN.WW.Y.0003.000000T0000Z-080126T0600Z/ /O.EXA.KJAN.IS.W.0001.000000T0000Z-080126T0600Z/ MONTGOMERY-WEBSTER-CLAY-LOWNDES-CHOCTAW-OKTIBBEHA-ATTALA- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...WINONA...EUPORA...MABEN...MATHISTON... WEST POINT...COLUMBUS...ACKERMAN...WEIR...STARKVILLE...KOSCIUSKO 719 PM CST FRI JAN 25 2008 ...ICE STORM WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT CST TONIGHT... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN JACKSON HAS ISSUED AN ICE STORM WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT CST TONIGHT. THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT. HEAVIER FREEZING RAIN IS MOVING INTO THE WARNING AREA THIS EVENING AND DANGEROUS ICE ACCUMULATIONS WILL BEGIN TO DEVELOP. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT BY MIDNIGHT...UP TO A HALF AN...

PEARL, Miss. — Detective Nick McLendon, on stakeout duty along a dark stretch of eastbound Interstate 20, noticed a red Chevy Suburban with heavily tinted windows and no light over its rear Texas license plate. The missing light gave him all the excuse he needed to pull the SUV over. Packed into the Suburban, he discovered, were 14 illegal immigrants, two suspected smugglers, and a spiral notebook on the front seat, listing the passengers and their destinations in Spanish — "Arterio Ramires to Nuy Yersey; David Luna to Nueba York; Marcelina and Jasmin to Carolina del Norte; Jose Aguilar to...

Mitt Romney claimed the endorsement today of a veteran US senator from the Deep South, Thad Cochran of Mississippi. "At this moment our nation faces unprecedented challenges, and Governor Romney has the experience, vision and values needed to strengthen our country for future generations," Cochran said in a statement issued by the Romney campaign. "Governor Romney is a man of outstanding judgment and strong character." The backing from Cochran, the sixth sitting Republican senator to join Romney's team, should help Romney build his case that he has national appeal in the GOP.

NEW ORLEANS --A Mississippi judge who ruled in favor of wealthy tort lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs in a civil case was told by a friend siding with Scruggs could mean consideration for a federal judgeship, prosecutors said in court papers unsealed this week. Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter, who did not respond to a call seeking comment Thursday, has denied accepting any bribes and defended his ruling in favor of Scruggs in a dispute with other lawyers over fees from asbestos litigation. However, during a closed-door proceeding in federal court last week, a prosecutor said Scruggs dispatched intermediaries to...