Each day we'll blog about news in Northeast Mississippi and around the world. Online Editor Todd Vinyard and other Journal Publishing Company staff members bring you breaking news or just some news to talk about. The blog will have at least one post each day Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. We may sneak some in on the weekend. Join us with comments.
First thanks to all the folks who came here. We appreciate them all. And now some big news. Djournal.com is moving and this blog is coming to an end. The new site is NeMs360.com. Djournal.com will still be up and running for awhile, but Journal Publishing Company will gradually be moving to this much more modern more up to date site. You’ll find all the breaking news you grew used to here there. Hope to see you there. Thanks for being here.
FBI agents late Thursday arrested Stanford Financial Group’s Chief Investment Officer Laura Pendergest-Holt on a criminal complaint charging her with obstructing the federal fraud case against Stanford.
To a nation reeling from recession and facing long-festering problems, President Barack Obama has a simple reminder: “We are not quitters.”
Whatever the problems, the new president promised in the first prime-time speech of his term, “We will rebuild, we will recover and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”
Standing before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Obama optimistically sketched an agenda that began with jobs, then broadened quickly to include a stable credit system, better schools, health care reform, reliable domestic sources of energy and an end to the war in Iraq. Specifics will follow, he said, although he conceded more billions may be necessary to stabilize the banking system.
Bob Wheeler, a country music historian from Baldwyn, Miss., tells how he started collecting albums and his passion for music.
Bob Wheeler, a country music historian from Baldwyn, Miss., plays one of the oldest records from his extensive record collection — “When You and I Were Young, Maggie” by Henry Burr.
Neighbors Editor Bobby Pepper put together these video of Bob Wheeler and his record collection. Read more about Mr. Wheeler’s collection by clicking here.
Thanks Bobby! Good to hear what a 100-year-old record sounds like.
IHL is in Oxford meeting with different groups about that today. What are your thoughts? Post what you think the new Ole Miss Chancellor should focus on in the comments below.
Click the video above to listen to Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat in this video produced by the school the day he announced he was retiring. Khayat talks about his decision to retire, his accomplishments while at Ole Miss, and his future plans.
We’ll have reports from Errol Castens later today on the Chancellor selection committee’s meetings in Oxford. Click here for a schedule of those meetings. If you attend any feel free to offer your views of how they went. If you don’t post what you would like to say if could go about what the group should be looking for in the next Chancellor at Ole Miss.
Sad news to report today – Longtime beloved Daily Journal columnist Phyllis Harper, whose tales of a place called Fawn Grove earned her a loyal following, was remembered by friends Friday. Harper died Thursday at North Mississippi Medical Center after a brief illness.
Share your thoughts about Phyllis Harper and her years at the Journal with comments below.
What did you think of President Obama’s press conference? Did it change your mind on the stimulus package? Comment below.
Also here is a Fact Check of some of what was said by The Associated Press.
FACT CHECK: Examining Obama’s job, pork claims
By CALVIN WOODWARD
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — At least Route 31 is a road to somewhere.
President Barack Obama had it both ways when he promoted his stimulus plan in Indiana and later at a prime-time news conference. He bragged in Indiana about getting Congress to produce a package with no pork, yet boasted it will do good things for a Hoosier highway and a downtown overpass, just the kind of local projects lawmakers lard into big spending bills.
Obama’s sales pitch on the enormous package he wants Congress to make law has sizzle as well as steak. He’s projecting job creation numbers that may be impossible to verify and glossing over some ethical problems that bedeviled his team.
In recent years, the so-called Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska came to symbolize the worst excesses of congressional earmarks, a device that allows a member of Congress to add money for local projects in legislation, practically under the radar.
Nothing so bold, or specific, as that now-discarded bridge project is contained in the stimulus package. That’s not to say the package steers clear of waste or parochial interests. Obama played to such interests Monday, speaking at one point as if he’d come to fill potholes.
A look at some of Obama’s claims in Elkhart, Ind., and the news conference called to make his case to the largest possible audience: Read more »
It is down to three from the 12 talked about earlier …
By Patsy R. Brumfield
Daily Journal
COLUMBUS – Mississippi University for Women may become Reneau University, Waverley University and Welty-Reneau University.
The campus’ new-name committee, selected by president Dr. Claudia Limbert last fall, worked through more than 20 names today to come up with three finalists for further consideration higher up the decision-maker chain.
After talking some three hours about the top 11 names submitted via Internet set or via mail, the two dozen committee member settled on grouping names by “family” – Reneau, Waverly and Welty. A grouping of nearly a dozen other names fell into Number 12 because they each received about the same overall votes from the committee via e-mail a few days ago.
Sally Reneau was an ardent 19th century supporter of higher public education for women in Mississippi. Waverly refers to a novel about change by Sir Walter Scott or to the plantation near Columbus. And Welty is for MUW alumna and Pulitzer writer Eudora Welty.
The top three names go to Limbert and a smaller leadership group working with marketers to decide which name best suits the university for its future.
The name change also must be OK’d by the state Institutions of Higher Learning’s board, which runs the state’s eight public universities.
The proposed change has been controversial, drawing the ire of hard-core MUW alumnae, who don’t want the change and have opposed Limbert on other issues.
Each set of names had its detractors, but by about 5 p.m., they had decided which to send to Limbert.
