Latest Mississippi News, Sports, Business And Entertainment

SEX EDUCATION

Hattiesburg school board to discuss sex education

(Information in the following story is from: The Hattiesburg American, http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com)

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) The Hattiesburg Public School District Board of Trustees will likely decide in April whether the district will adopt an abstinence or abstinence-plus based sex education policy under a new state law which takes effect in June.

Superintendent James Bacchus tells the Hattiesburg American (http://hatne.ws/wu4BXQ ) he will present a wealth of data to the school board members at the March meeting to help them make their decision.

Bacchus said he'll be holding a meeting this month to gather opinions about abstinence-only or abstinence-plus sex education from select district parents, community leaders and members of the health community. He said he'll share those opinions with school board members.

GULFPORT BODY

Body found in Gulfport

(Information in the following story is from: The Sun Herald, http://www.sunherald.com)

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove will perform an autopsy on a body that was found in a creek bed in Gulfport.

Hargrove tells The Sun Herald (http://bit.ly/AeGssj ) law enforcement officials discovered the body about 11 a.m. Sunday off Coleman Road.

He says the body is decomposed.

Several agencies had been searching that area for the past few days looking for 34-year-old Jay Bond, who has been missing since Dec. 1. He was last seen walking down Coleman Road after telling family members goodbye and to take care of themselves.

Relatives reported him missing Jan. 24.

Hargrove says he's unsure if the body is Bond. He plans to perform an autopsy on Monday.

TRAINING SCHOOL LEADERS

New chiefs guiding 60 Miss. school districts

(Information in the following story is from: The Clarion-Ledger, http://www.clarionledger.com)

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) Sixty Mississippi school districts have new superintendents.

That number doesn't include the seven districts with state-appointed conservators.

The Clarion-Ledger reports (http://on.thec-l.com/zhDXaA ) that the state Department of Education is requesting $2.5 million to start a superintendent's academy. State Superintendent Tom Burnham told House Education Committee members this past week that the academy is "desperately needed" for new administrators to receive training.

Burnham says some of the superintendents have "been asked to do things they don't know how to do."

Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Superintendents, says with the pressure for greater accountability and improved student performance, experienced leadership may be a key.

Domenech says research has shown it takes at least three years for superintendents to establish themselves in a community.

VA PROMOTION

Former Miss. Medicaid official promoted by VA

(Information in the following story is from: The Clarion-Ledger, http://www.clarionledger.com)

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) Rica Lewis-Payton, a former director of Mississippi's Medicaid program, will oversee 10 Veterans Affairs medical centers in eight states.

The Clarion-Ledger reports (http://on.thec-l.com/w6Oco8 ) Lewis-Payton, currently the medical center director of the Birmingham VA Medical Center, will assume her new job as network director of the South Central VA Health Care Network on March 11.

The network is one of the largest networks in the Veterans Health Administration responsible for VA medical centers and veterans' health care services throughout Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and parts of Texas, Missouri, Alabama and Florida; more than 18,800 employees; and a budget of almost $3 billion.

The 10 VA medical centers provide a full range of specialty, tertiary, mental health, and long term care in the eight-state region.

FATAL-POLICE CHASE

Woman killed as police chase suspects

(Information in the following story is from: The Clarion-Ledger, http://www.clarionledger.com)

FLOWOOD, Miss. (AP) A 31-year-old Rankin County woman is dead, and a convicted felon is in custody, charged with causing the accident that killed her as he allegedly fled police.

The Clarion-Ledger reports (http://on.thec-l.com/AvwFas ) Milinda Clark was killed Sunday when her vehicle was struck in Flowood after a chase that began in Ridgeland.

Flowood Police Chief Johnny DeWitt says Robert Williams of Jackson will face charges including felony fleeing resulting in the death of another and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer once he is released from the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

DeWitt says Williams and Melinda Renae Rutherford of Ripley allegedly shoplifted from a Ridgeland business.

Police say Williams and Rutherford led police on a chase into Rankin County before ending in the fatal crash in Flowood.

DIAMONDHEAD INCORPORATION

Diamondhead becomes a city

(Information in the following story is from: The Sun Herald, http://www.sunherald.com)

DIAMONDHEAD, Miss. (AP) Diamondhead officially will become a city Monday when state officials present a charter to the prospective government.

The Sun Herald reports (http://bit.ly/yrCLEm ) the move comes after five years of legal wrangling over incorporation -- a hotly contested case that opponents took all the way to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which upheld the incorporation in a decision last month. The mayor and City Council will meet at 2 p.m. to take the first official steps as a city.

One of the benefits to becoming a city, besides having control over tax dollars generated there, is the fact Diamondhead would be able to receive federal money. After Hurricane Katrina, because the area was unincorporated, it had to handle much of its own debris removal and other cleanup costs.

EX-PROFESSOR SUIT

Hinds CC appeals ex-prof suit

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) A federal appeals court has scheduled arguments on Hinds Community College's appeal of a workplace retaliation case.

In 2010, the school was ordered to pay a former professor $345,020 after a federal jury found she had been the victim of workplace retaliation.

The 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals has scheduled arguments in the case for March 6 at the University of Houston Law Center in Houston, Texas.

Renee Summers-Akers, who taught at Hinds from 1982 until her retirement last spring, alleged she was passed over for a promotion in 2006 because she had aided a colleague who was accusing the college of racial discrimination.

For her workplace retaliation claim, she was awarded compensatory damages, as well as back pay she would have earned as the department chairwoman and interest.

VALENTINE'S HEART SURGERY

Valentine's heart surgery for Philippine girl

NEW ORLEANS (AP) On Valentine's Day, New Orleans surgeons will fix a hole in the heart of a 4-year-old girl from the Philippines.

Dr. Joseph Caspi will lead a volunteer team in the operation at Children's Hospital to repair the hole between the two top chambers of the child's heart.

The girl and her mother, identified only as Julia and Dann, will be staying at a home in Slidell, La.

The operation is sponsored by HeartGift a charity with three Texas offices and one in New Orleans and the New Orleans-based Betty S. and James A Noe Jr. Foundation.

The foundation's board says one of the Noes' grandchildren was successfully treated years ago for a congenital heart defect, and the couple wants to help another little girl live a normal life.

ANDERSON APPEAL

Anderson loses appeal of murder conviction

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) The Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction of Damien Anderson in a shooting death outside a Durant nightclub in 2009.

Anderson was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 in Holmes County.

Prosecutors say Anderson shot Darnell Smith of Durant multiple times after the two argued outside the nightclub in August 2009.

On appeal, Anderson argued the trial judge erred when she refused to grant a jury instruction on the offense of manslaughter. Anderson contended that forced the defense to choose between manslaughter and self-defense instructions.

The Supreme Court said this past week that no reasonable jury could have found Anderson guilty of manslaughter.

MISSISSIPPI SCIENCE

Miss. science standards get C

(Information in the following story is from: The Hattiesburg American, http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com)

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) An educational research institute gives Mississippi a grade of C for what it describes as mediocre standards for teaching science in public schools.

But state associate superintendent Trecina Green tells The Hattiesburg American (http://hatne.ws/yjlcdh) it's a tremendous improvement from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute's last report. In 2005, Mississippi got an F from the Washington-based group.

Green says only 13 states got a higher grade and 27 got lower grades.

She says a 2008 curriculum rewrite took the earlier report into consideration.

Curriculum standards tell teachers what kindergarten through 12th-grade students should know.

Official Kathleen Porter-Magee says Fordham considered content and rigor, and whether they were specific enough to guide instruction and tests.

She says Mississippi was squarely in the middle of disappointing national results.