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PASCAGOULA, Miss. – Authorities said a Mississippi Gulf Coast man apparently thought he was at his girlfriend's place when he wandered into another couple's home and fell asleep on their couch. Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd told The Mississippi Press that a couple in the St. Martin community found a stranger snoozing on their couch and cuddling a teddy bear late Saturday.

At a hearing in late March, the nation's credit card companies faced the threat of expensive new rules from an unlikely regulator: the House Committee on Homeland Security, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). The committee had never before dealt with credit card issues, but Thompson warned Visa, MasterCard and others that Congress might need to impose tighter security standards costing millions of dollars to protect customers from identity theft. Behind the scenes, some of Thompson's staffers sensed a different motive -- an attempt to pressure the companies into making political donations to the chairman, according to several former committee...

Concerns that the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee may have used a credit card bill to woo donations from credit card companies has prompted the chamber's ethics panel to open an investigation. The Washington Post first reported on Friday that staffers to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) suspected foul play as early as this summer, after the committee unexpectedly took up a tough bill that would have implemented new fees to protect against credit card identity theft. According to the Post, Thompson collected about $15,000 in donations from the industry shortly after those hearings began, but no bill was...

WASHINGTON, DC, November 19, 2009 — The Mississippi Court of Appeals has granted a retrial for Covington & Burling LLP client Cory Maye, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 shooting of a police officer that occurred during a narcotics task force search of Mr. Maye’s home. In its opinion of November 17, the Court of Appeals found that Mr. Maye had been denied the right to be tried in the county where the offense occurred, and that the trial court had improperly rejected Mr. Maye’s attempt to withdraw a prior motion to transfer venue. The shooting...

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

All-American Michael Oher went from the streets as a 15-year-old son of a crack addict to potential NFL Rookie of the Year on the love and dedication of an adoptive family that wouldn’t let him fail. The movie that tells their story hits theaters in time for National Adoption Day—and recognition that about 130,000 Michael Ohers are waiting for a family to adopt them Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy adopted as a family motto, "To whom much is given, much is required," they had no idea just how much would be required, nor that they were adopting far more than...

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says the decision by seven Simpson County elected officials to switch from Democrat to Republican comes at the right time.

JACKSON, Miss. — The University of Mississippi's first-year chancellor followed through on a promise Tuesday and asked the band to stop playing a pep song because some fans are chanting "the South will rise again" at the end of the medley. "Here at the University of Mississippi, there must be no doubt that this is a warm and welcoming place for all," Dan Jones wrote Tuesday in a letter to the university community. "We cannot even appear to support those outside our community who advocate a revival of racial segregation. We cannot fail to respond." Dan Jones said last week...

000 WTNT31 KNHC 081758 TCPAT1 BULLETIN HURRICANE IDA SPECIAL ADVISORY NUMBER 19 NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL112009 1200 PM CST SUN NOV 08 2009 ...HURRICANE WATCH EXTENDED EASTWARD ALONG THE NORTHERN GULF COAST...IDA STRENGTHENS A LITTLE... AT 1200 PM CST...1800 UTC...A HURRICANE WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI/ALABAMA BORDER TO MEXICO BEACH FLORIDA. A HURRICANE WATCH IS NOW IN EFFECT FROM GRAND ISLE LOUISIANA TO MEXICO BEACH FLORIDA. THIS WATCH DOES NOT INCLUDE THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS. A HURRICANE WATCH MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA...GENERALLY WITHIN 36 HOURS. A HURRICANE...

<p>JACKSON, Miss.-- University of Mississippi football fans who refuse to stop chanting "the South will rise again" are on the verge of losing one of their favorite fight songs, the school's chancellor said Monday.</p> <p>Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones said "From Dixie With Love" will no longer be played at games if fans continue the racially offensive chant.</p>

Travis Childers (MS-1) WASHINGTON D.C. OFFICE • 1708 Longworth HOB • Washington, DC 20515 • p. (202) 225-4306 • f. (202) 225-3549 • View Directions TUPELO OFFICE • 337A East Main Street • Tupelo, MS 38804 • p. (662) 841-8808 • f. (662) 841-8845 • View Directions HERNANDO OFFICE • 2564 HWY 51 S. • Hernando, MS 38632 • p. (662) 449-3090 • f. (662) 449-4836 • View Directions COLUMBUS OFFICE • 523 Main Street • Columbus, MS 39701 • p. (662) 327-0748 • View Directions Contact him https://forms.house.gov/childers/webforms/contact.htm Facebook http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=Travis+Childers&init=quick#/pages/Congressman-Travis-W-Childers/206217375056?ref=search&sid=1072359854.907843371..1 Myspace http://www.myspace.com/travischilders Jim Cooper (TN-5) * Please note that,...

<p>Republicans rallying this morning in Springfield had a new prop: A broom that read "McBolliNelli" on the handle.</p> <p>The Republican ticket is stumping throughout the state Saturday but began with a traditional GOP pep rally at Interstate Van Lines in Springfield. Gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell was joined by ticket mates Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, attorney general candidate Sen. Ken Cuccinelli and a variety for Republican luminaries, including Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, chairman of the Republican Governors Association.</p>

Brigitte Gabriel, founder & president of ACT! for America, will discuss the threat of Islamic terrorism here and around the world at the First Assembly Of God Church, 8650 Walnut Grove Road, Cordova, TN 38018. The presentation is free and open to the public. BRIGITTE GABRIEL, the founder and President of ACT! for America (www.actforamerica.org), is a US-based journalist and news producer who started her career as an anchor for World News, an evening Arabic news program. As a terrorism expert, Brigitte Gabriel travels widely and speaks regularly on topics related to the Middle East. She has addressed audiences at...

• ACLU Working to Chip Away Code of Discipline with DeSoto County Schools Editorial by Milton Kuykendall, Superintendent, DeSoto County Schools The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is attacking the Code of Discipline in DeSoto County Schools. The ACLU has just filed the 3rd lawsuit against our school district. What some may not realize is that they are challenging our safe and orderly environment--the one characteristic that separates our school district from districts near us. The ACLU can make charges against the school district saying we have done something to a student. We cannot respond because of privacy issues. In...

JACKSON, Miss. -The University of Mississippi has shortened one of its fight songs to discourage football fans from chanting "the South will rise again" during part of the tune, which critics say is an offensive reminder of the region's intolerant past. However, some fans have continued to recite the chant at the end of the song, "From Dixie With Love," despite the change made last week at the chancellor's request. The Ole Miss band performs the medley before and after games. Earlier this month, the Ole Miss student government passed a resolution suggesting the chant be replaced by the phrase,...

Watch out, animals of South Florida: It's a wild world out there. There are five species of foreign snakes just waiting to eat you. More troublingly, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report released Tuesday, nonnative snakes like the Burmese python could slither their way north from the warm, humid conditions of South Florida. The big snakes threaten native species and ecosystems because they mature and reproduce quickly, travel long distances and can eat almost anything in fur, feathers or scales, experts say. The 302-page report could be a step toward a ban on importing constrictor-like snakes into the U.S.,...

Pit bulls are always earning notoriety as fighting dogs, attack dogs and all around vicious canines, but East Lincoln's Phil Hemby has one specimen of the square-headed breed earning a new name for itself. And that name is lifesaver. Well, not quite ... Shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday, Hemby stepped out to take Slim, his 2-year-old pit terrier, for a joy ride in his Yamaha Rhino ATV around the Hemby Farms chicken houses off Townsend Drive. But the normally docile dog was in a rage - barking, snarling and driving him back - and wouldn't let him approach the machine....

D'IBERVILLE, MS (WLOX) - It was his first official role as the new D'Iberville City Manager. On Monday morning, Michael Janus helped celebrate the opening of Newk's Express Restaurant in the new Promenade Shopping Center. "It's exciting," said Janus. "I mean, you can't imagine a better job. Within three hours on the job, you already have a ribbon cutting." Janus took the opportunity to learn new names and catch up with some familiar faces. Then it was time to head back to City Hall for a busy afternoon. "I haven't filled out my employment paperwork yet. I was wondering if...

Litigation: The Founding Fathers envisioned the states as laboratories for ideas and choices. If the administration needs a demonstration project for successful tort reform, it need look no further than Mississippi. When President Obama said during his health care speech to Congress that he would "look into" malpractice reform and support "demonstration projects" at the state level, Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a Republican, responded: "If they want a demonstration project, come down to Mississippi. I'll show you a demonstration project." Mississippi enacted tort reform in 2004, including caps on medical malpractice awards. As a result, the number of medical...

JACKSON, MS (WLOX) - Governor Haley Barbour issued an executive order Monday stripping any state funds away from an advocacy group tied to illicit activities in another state. The executive order, delivered to the Secretary of State's Office Monday afternoon, seeks to shut off taxpayer dollars to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now - known by the acronym "ACORN." "I have instructed the State Fiscal Officer to conduct a comprehensive review of the state's relationship with ACORN, and all state agencies are to cut off funding for any current contracts with ACORN to the extent the law permits,"...

WASHINGTON — Set aside the images of lawmakers in hallowed halls of the Capitol yelling about who's lying and why, and picture this: Two Republican heavyweights and the Democratic president they tried to eject from office a decade ago, perched together as elder statesmen in a gilded chamber reserved for events that transcend partisanship. "We were sort of a triangle," former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott recalled Wednesday of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton. They all joined Lott's colleagues, staff and family to unveil the Mississippi Republican's official portrait. "Even though we had our differences, we found a...

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said in an interview that rising opposition to President Obama's free-spending policies has nothing to do with race, and dismissed rosy federal predictions that the recession is over as nothing more than "political happy talk." "All through my political career, when the Democrats are losing the argument, they try to make the issue race. The issue's left and right, it's not black and white," the Republican governor said in an interview with editors and reporters Thursday at The Washington Times. "This administration and this Congress have attempted the biggest lurch to the left of...

Starkville Police Department detectives say they are tracking several leads in the early Saturday morning robbery attempt that saw the victim fire gunshots at the suspect who tried to hold him up. Around 5:30 a.m. Saturday, the owner of Starkville Ready Cash on Highway 12 West was arriving at the business to prepare to open for the day when a black male approached him, pointing a handgun at him. The owner, whose name SPD detectives would not release amid concerns for his safety, then pulled out a handgun of his own and fired multiple shots at the suspect, but none...

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Perdido Key firefighters say two Louisiana tourists drowned at a Pensacola beach and 11 swimmers were rescued. Authorities say they received a call Tuesday afternoon of swimmers tangled in the beach's strong riptides.

PASS CHRISTIAN — Gail Nicholson chokes back tears talking about how close to death her stepson came while serving in Iraq. “I can’t think about it without even crying,” she said. “The specifics are a little bit more than I can accept without getting upset.” Sgt. 1st Class Jesse Nicholson, a 1992 graduate of Pass Christian High, received the Bronze Star on Saturday in Jackson for saving as many as 20 troops on Feb. 16, 2005. On that day in Iraq, the Mississippi National Guardsman volunteered to walk in front of patrol units and search for explosive devices. He and...

Mississippian's challenge to opponents to burn their cards called 'very cynical'/B> Oppose a government health care plan? A Jackson, Miss., doctor wants you to put your convictions on the line by burning your mother's Medicare card. It's the reverse of the challenge many citizens have been issuing to their own members of Congress to forgo the health care plans they get by dint of working for the government and buy into the "public option" plan instead. "I want to have a demonstration - Boston Tea Party-like - and burn those cards," said Dr. Aaron Shirley, who has done extensive work...

Three months after Hurricane Katrina, the Sun Herald described in a front-page editorial “Mississippi’s Invisible Coast.” It spoke of the fact that the further removed in time we were from Katrina, the less attention outside news reports paid to the plight of our region and its people, and the more it seemed history was being rewritten in a way that would render South Mississippi no more than a postscript to the greatest natural disaster to befall the nation. Already the trend had begun for the national media to cover South Mississippi’s part of the story with an add-on phrase...

I just got off the phone with the superindentent's office of schools in Desoto county MS. A letter will be going out today for parent approval for your children to hear the Obama speech. The school don't have cable, but teachers will show it over the internet. Under no circumstances will children be shown it though without parental ok.

Tuesday morning began just like any other morning for football star Kaleb Eulls. Eulls and his three younger sisters were among 22 passengers on a school bus bound for Yazoo County High School in western Mississippi until a 14-year old female student boarded the bus armed with a .380 semi-automatic handgun threatening to shoot and ordering the bus driver to pull over. Eulls had fallen asleep at the back of the bus listening to his mp3 player and did not realize what was happening until one of his sisters woke him up. "My sister that was in front of me...

President Obama’s birth certificate (or purported lack thereof) has been a central piece of rightwing agit-prop, but at the Minnesota State Fair’s crop art exhibit, it’s now a piece of agri-prop. Artist Mark Dahlager glued thousands of seeds to a board to create a facsimile of the famous document, adding the tagline “Move on #&%?! Birthers.” (See full sized view at bottom of post.) Political themes have become a staple at the Fair’s crop art exhibit over the years, but Dahlager’s piece may break new ground by reproducing an actual government document. Why did he do it? “I actually had...

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - Jackson police have identified the armed burglar who was shot and killed while trying to break into a closed business Sunday. The man who died in the shooting was 33-year-old Lorenzo Rodriguez Jones of Jackson. The shooting happened at the Gipson Discount Foods, in the 14 hundred block of Highway 80, near Terry Road Sunday evening. When officers arrived, they found Jones with a gunshot wound to the chest, at the rear of the grocery store. Assistant Police Chief Lee Vance says he was breaking in when an employee who lives in the building, opened fire...

Jackson police are investigating a shooting that may fall under the "Castle Doctrine," Mississippi's law governing justifiable homicide in the defense of a home or business. The shooting took place at approximately 5 p.m. Sunday at Gipson's Discount Foods on Highway 80 in West Jackson. Police say that a man carrying a large knife and a handgun attempted to enter the store through a back door. A relative of the store's owners shot and killed the intruder. Jackson Police Department spokesman Lt. Jeffery Scott said this morning that the shooter lives on the premises, but would not release his name....

What was supposed to be a swanky Summit Avenue fundraiser for Sen. Al Franken on Thursday was abruptly canceled when Franken discovered that the host of the event served a year in prison for swindling some northern Minnesotans. Mark Erjavec, who describes himself as an entrepreneur specializing in distressed real estate, may be a newcomer to the political scene but he is well known in the courtroom. Besides the 1997 theft by swindle conviction, the 33-year-old Erjavec has faced over $100,000 in tax liens and civil judgments. General Electric sued him for copyright infringement. His personal website has a link...

U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) received two standing ovations Tuesday from the Laurel Rotary Club as he voiced criticism of President Obama’s drive to reform health care. “The Blue Dogs (Democrats who often vote Republican) have done America a great favor by delaying the vote,” said Taylor, a member of the group, who noted he is voting against the bill. “I don’t think we have the money for that. I’ve always thought something worth doing is worth paying for.” Taylor said the health care debate is a timely issue, adding that Americans must realize there is cost involved. “We all...

Pilot Lee Taylor of Eagle’s Nest Ventures of Diamondhead gives flying instructions to Sean Peneguy, 13, before their flight Friday. Sean was excited and a little nervous before his first airplane ride last Friday. He had a chance to take the controls during mid-flight. After spending most of last year checking in and out of hospitals battling cancer, one middle school student got a thrill of a lifetime. Sean Peneguy, a 13-year-old from Bay St. Louis, was diagnosed with bone cancer a year ago. Since then, he has been in chemotherapy and had surgery to remove a tumor from...

A Jones County inventor has filed a lawsuit against two Internet server companies. John Ishmel Henry of Soso, in May, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. In his suit, Henry claims that “he was called and depicted as a n----r on two of the Internet service provider search engines, AOL and Google.” Henry, the original inventor of the vibrating toilet seat, was featured on the Jay Leno Show in November, 2008. “Needless to say that my invention garnered a lot of attention,” he said. “I was completely humiliated and horrified...

link only per FR posting rules. (Gannett newspaper)

Texas' identity as a solid "red" state is unlikely to change any time soon. According to a new Gallup Poll, 43 percent of Lone Star State residents identify as "conservatives" while just 16 percent identify as "liberals." Thirty-six percent of respondents described themselves as "moderates," in the poll of more than 9,100 Texans. The most conservative state is Alabama, where 49 percent of residents are solidly conservative, followed by Mississippi, Utah and Louisiana. The most liberal state is Massachusetts where 29 percent of people identify as liberal, followed by Vermont, Oregon and Washington. In Washington D.C., 37 percent of respondents...

MOSS POINT — U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor answered questions Monday night on health care, defense and tax issues from conservatives, Republicans, Democrats and others during a heated town hall meeting. About 1,000 poured into the Pelican Landing Conference Center, while many more were turned away when the building was filled to capacity for the highly anticipated talk. Groups opposed to high taxes and big government are directing people to attend their representatives’ meetings to grill them about President Barack Obama’s health care plans, the economy and other issues. A good number of local Democrats were also at the meeting...

There may never be a better time or place to have an encounter with the world's largest fish than right now off the Alabama coast. For the last few weeks, unprecedented numbers of whale sharks have been seen cruising just a few miles off the beach, their broad snouts and tall dorsal fins breaking the surface as they swim lazily along, mouths agape, sucking in plankton.

RON ELIAS/SUN HERALD ARCHIVES/1996 Downtown Pass Christain, on the morning of Aug. 18, was a pile of rubble, as proven in this Daily Herald photograph. Some of the remaining buildings would later be destroyed in Katrina, for Pass Christian once again got the high-water mark. “Hurricane Watch Posted” warned the front page of The Daily Herald on Aug. 16, 1969. In a classic twist of irony, the Mississippi Coast newspaper advertised Pass Christian’s Moonlite Drive-In would, in a few days, show the film classic “Gone with the Wind.” That was Saturday. Hurricane Camille struck Sunday night — 40 years...

(AP) — JACKSON, Mississippi - Police had been watching Vincent Goff for years, convinced he was the masked man who sexually assaulted couples at gunpoint on the Mississippi coast. But before investigators closed in, they say Goff picked the wrong victim and was beaten nearly to death with his own rifle. Goff, a 37-year-old unemployed Biloxi man with a wife and two stepsons, was being held Wednesday in the Harrison County Jail after spending five days in a hospital recovering from severe head wounds. Little is known about Goff's background or the unidentified man who beat him so hard that...

South Central Extended Care Unit in Ellisville will close its doors on September 30 and shift the resources it provides to outpatient and other services at South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel. The Extended Care facility, often called “The Swing Bed,” is a victim of the government’s continued cuts to reimbursement for health care services. Starting October 1, patients who are now admitted to the Extended Care Facility will transition into other types of care based upon patient need.

GULFPORT — A man accused of being a sexual predator, who was released from a hospital Tuesday, had been beaten in the head with his own rifle by a male victim who fought back, authorities said. The unnamed victim, who was kidnapped last week with a female acquaintance, took the rifle away from Vincent Goff and used it to hit Goff repeatedly on the head, said Sheriff’s Maj. Ron Pullen. Once the stock broke off the rifle, the victim kept hitting Goff until Goff managed to escape and drive off, Pullen said. “I don’t know if he’s lucky, but...

The Victim - Xavier Cortez Seales PASCAGOULA — Xavier Cortez Seales was shot to death at his Biloxi apartment just three days before he was to testify in a capital murder trial in Jackson County. Court records show that Seales, 38, signed for the subpoena from the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office on July 13 and was scheduled to appear in Jackson County Circuit Court on Monday to testify in the capital murder trial of Christopher Coleman. But Seales never made it to court. On Friday, a friend found Seales dead of a single gunshot wound to the head at...

Three leading Republican governors on Monday defended the heated exchanges and vigorous protests taking place at health care town hall events across the country. "I think you see a heightened emotion and passion and, you say anger, because people are scared," said Hawaii GOP Gov. Linda Lingle, during a conference call with reporters organized by the Republican Governors Association. "You're talking about hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts in spending on Medicare, and that's why you see members of the AARP separated from their leadership on this issue, because they're scared," the Hawaii governor said. "The heightened anger is...

Leading Republican governors seemed to downplay the statements from Sarah Palin while embracing to an extent the passion of town hall participants who have been vocal in their opposition to health care reform. Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.), chair of the Republican Governors Association, told reporters this afternoon that one reason people are reacting so strongly around the country is because they think the White House is moving far too quickly on an issue of tremendous concern. "The Obamas took six months to pick a dog. How come they [had] to pass a health care bill before the August recess?" he...

<p>After months of planning, FR's DC Convention is coming together.</p> <p>Help make history, join in Free Republic's return to DC as a national group and help to herald in another wave of conservative activism Free Republic is famous for!</p> <p>“Reagan is good for business” was Andrew’s introduction to politics. “I was real little, but that’s what my dad used to say.” Andrew Wilkow began his radio career at the college radio station. Conservative leaning politics were always his heart and he expressed his views on the air regularly, much to the anger of his co-workers. “I was basically just anti-P.C. at first.” He broke out of music radio in 2002 when he was given a trial/fill-in slot for Mark Levin on his hometown station, WABC in NYC. “That was huge and that’s when I first met Sean Hannity.” Soon after that he earned a weekend slot then a full time job at an upstate station. I basically did a 300 mile roundtrip every weekend for over 3 years to do both shows. Wilkow’s move to SIRIUS brings his new sound of conservative talk radio to a national audience. To quote Andrew, “Now is the time for the new school of conservative voices with a whole new style and passion – moving to SIRIUS lets me take that style and passion nationwide."</p>

I was lying in my hospital bed in Boston when I got an e-mail from someone making an oblique reference to the arrest of Skip Gates. I thought the writer was mistaken and wrote back saying, “But Skip is in China.” I couldn’t believe there was anything under the sun that would lead to Skip getting arrested—unless it was in China. And even then, what could he have done? Asked an official a tough question about human rights or something? So I did what I always do when I need to reach Skip, who, like me, lives on his BlackBerry....

A group of healthcare professionals are gathering in one Mississippi community Thursday night to educate the public about the healthcare proposals currently being considered in the House and Senate. It is truly a grassroots effort. About a half dozen doctors and dentists will speak at a church in Tupelo about what they believe are the horrors of the healthcare reform bills being pushed by President Obama and Democratic leaders. Dr. Ed Holliday is a Tupelo dentist who will be speaking at tonight's gathering. "If [this legislation] passes, Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin will leap out of their graves to high-five...