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Media Credit: Ryan Moore Daniel Reed Cummings, the second-year University of Mississippi student indicted for capital murder, was denied bond Wednesday after more than three hours of testimony from character witnesses and a police investigator. Lackey said he trusted the character witnesses' testimonies on behalf of Cummings and recognized that young people make mistakes but said he had a duty to uphold the law. "If I would let my emotions or my feelings overrule, I would grant bond," said Lackey, "but under the law, which I'm sworn to the law, I believe I would be in error, and for that...

OXFORD, Miss.-A University of Mississippi police officer was killed early Saturday morning while conducting a traffic stop near the university campus. Officer Robert Langley, 30, had stopped a vehicle for speeding when the driver suddenly pulled away, dragging him approximately 200 yards. Langley suffered severe head injuries and was taken by helicopter to the Medical Center in Memphis where he was pronounced dead. Within 30 minutes of the incident, Oxford Police detained 20-year-old Daniel Cummings, a second-year UM student from Germantown, Tenn. Cummings has been charged with capital murder of police officer and is being held in the Lafayette County...

Oxford smokers will have to resist the urge to light up in public after Nov. 16, when a city-wide ordinance banning the smoking of tobacco products in all public areas goes into effect. The ordinance, which has caused much debate between smokers and non-smokers, was unanimously approved by the city aldermen after the draft's final reading in a regular board meeting Tuesday, making Oxford the third town in Mississippi to pass a ban. When the ordinance is enacted, it will prohibit smoke from cigarettes, cigars, pipes, hookahs and other lighted tobacco products in all indoor public areas, including local bars...

Gannett Rules, link posted in First comment

The judicial confirmation process is in a state of chaos, plagued by a lack of a “sense of decency” believes Mississippi's own Charles Pickering who knows only too well the pitfalls of being considered for a judgeship by a politically polarized body. The retired federal circuit judge and father of 3rd district Congressman Chip Pickering, is still stinging from the chaos surrounding his nomination to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. After years of legal, political and community service in his native Mississippi, Judge Pickering has authored his first of two books that deal with his four-year...

Cheers erupted from the standing-room-only crowd in the City Hall courtroom Tuesday night after members of the Starkville Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance prohibiting smoking in public places and in places of employment. The ordinance, adopted after a brief public hearing during Tuesday night's Board of Aldermen meeting, takes effect 60 days from Tuesday and specifically defines where smoking is prohibited in the city, requirements for posting “no smoking” signs, responsibilities of business owners, enforcement and violations. The ordinance was developed by an appointed committee that included three members of the Board of Aldermen, two local...

Jerious Norwood backed up his coach's big talk. Norwood scored four touchdowns in his final game at Mississippi State, leading the host Bulldogs to a 35-14 victory against rival Mississippi on Saturday in the Egg Bowl. His big performance came after coach Sylvester Croom spiced up the rivalry when he said ''we're going to beat their butt,'' then stuck by those strong words in the days before the game. Norwood rushed for 204 yards and three touchdowns on 34 carries, and caught a 5-yard scoring pass from Mike Henig in leading the worst offense in the Southeastern Conference to 409...

With the city's Board of Aldermen now reviewing the proposed "Starkville Smoke-Free Air Act of 2005," many will be seeking to learn exactly what the ordinance would regulate if ultimately adopted in its current form. Draft copies of the ordinance were presented to the aldermen Tuesday night by the Citizens for a Breathe-Free Starkville, a grass-roots group that has developed the measure. The Board of Aldermen voted to evaluate the ordinance, discuss it during the next regularly scheduled meeting Dec. 6 and to hold a town hall meeting to allow for open debate among residents. Though the draft ordinance lists...

Starkville, Miss. — There’s really no way to describe this place. How do you describe nothing? Think of it like this: Alongside this far-flung outpost, Auburn, Ala., seems as big and bustling as New York, N.Y. In a way, it’s nice that Mississippi State plays football. Without the mid-sized stadium rising above this low-slung burg, you’d miss Starkville altogether and go motoring off into Arkansas. With gas the price it is, who can afford such an overshot? Other means of transport are problematic. You can’t fly into Starkville itself. You have to land at the ambitiously named Golden Triangle Regional...

n a few weeks time, it will be legal in Starkville to walk into a grocery or convenience store and buy refrigerated beer or light wine. In a 6-1 decision, the Starkville Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday night to make the change to Starkville's beer ordinance, with Ward 3 Alderman P.C. McLaurin casting the dissenting vote. "Our job is to do things that are good for the community," said McLaurin. "I have given a great deal of thought to this issue, and have difficulty coming up with one practical thing that this will accomplish. Many of our local sellers are...

A push by Mississippi State and local economic development officials to tie in university research efforts into commercial opportunities paid off Monday with the announcement that a Pennsylvania company will partner with a local firm in developing silocon carbide applications for military and electronics markets. II-VI Inc. of Saxonburg, Pa. is partnering with SemiSouth Laboratories, which operates in the Ralph E. Powe Center for Innovative Technology in the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park. SemiSouth's development as a company out of research conducted at MSU proved to be a major incentive in luring II-VI (pronounced "two-six") to Starkville,...

Walker sentenced to 25 years in prison By CATHERINE RAGSDALE/Starkville Daily News Former Mississippi State football star Dontay Walker was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison and fined $2,000 for his conviction last week on drug charges. Last week, a seven-woman, five-man jury convicted Walker on charges of possession of more than an ounce of marijuana and possession of more than an ounce of crack cocaine. Walker was originally arrested for possession of more than an ounce of crack cocaine and marijuana with intent to distribute, but the jury saw fit to drop the intent clause. Mississippi state law...

The Florida Gators have fired third-year football coach Ron Zook and his staff, ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit reported Monday. Ron Zook and the Gators fell to 4-3 on Saturday. Athletic director Jeremy Foley will meet with members of the team this afternoon and then announce that Zook and his staff will coach the team for the remainder of the season, Herbstreit reported. The firing comes on the heels of the Gators' 38-31 loss Saturday to Mississippi State, the worst team in the SEC. The Gators are 4-3 this season, 20-13 overall under Zook. His teams haven't had the swagger of those...

The College Democrats' Homecoming float was set on fire Saturday night, police said. The float was parked in a member's driveway on Guest Drive near Stark Road. The Starkville Police Department is investigating the incident as third degree arson, a felony that carries a minimum sentence of one year in prison. ..... This year was the first for the College Democrats to build a float for the Homecoming parade. Bogard said that during the parade the College Democrats were pelted by ice and tin foil from another float.

STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) - The Confederate emblem on the state flag has again cost Mississippi the chance to host a national sporting event. Three years after the NCAA denied Delta State its bid to host the Division II Swimming and Diving Championships, Mississippi State lost an invitation to serve as a host site for a prominent Division I regular season basketball tournament in November. END EXCERPT The rest of the article can be found here

Well, Im a longtime lurker, and this is my first so bear with me... :) I am a 21 year old college student, and I cant make sense of all these people griping over minimum wage. If people dont want to make minimum wage, there are plenty of opportunities out there, even for people with no skills. To illustrate here is my employment history Summer of 1998 - I am 15 years old, just got my first summer job working in a warehouse. Pay is $6.50 an hour. Work is hard, lots of lifting, loading, and working in a hot...