Scott Walters

STARKVILLE — Mississippi State University’s football coaching staff is using its 2012 recruiting class to define a philosophy.

MSU expects to sign a class Wednesday that features some of the state’s top defensive linemen. The Bulldogs hope those players will help the defense dominate the line of scrimmage with its front four. According to Scout.com, MSU is in position to sign the most talent at defensive line in the nation.

“When you look at what coach (Dan) Mullen has preached and we believe in as a staff, in order to be dominant in the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference, you have to win the battle up front,” MSU defensive coordinator Chris Wilson said in a phone interview Monday.

The Bulldogs, who already have senior Josh Boyd and sophomores P.J. Jones and Curtis Virges in the fold, have already added two defensive-line prospects with the arrival of junior college defensive end Denico Autry and Morton High School defensive tackle Quay Evans.

MSU announced Friday that Autry, Evans, center Dylan Holley, offensive lineman Charles Siddoway and offensive lineman Justin Senior enrolled earlier this month, which allowed them to sign financial aid papers and made them eligible for spring practice March 22.

Some questioned Evans’ work ethic and maturity in high school, but the four-star prospect still had 72 tackles, four and a half sacks, four forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries as a senior.

“When you think about how dominant the young man was at his level, he could get away with that type of play,” Wilson said about Evans’ attitude. “I don’t know many kids his age that would make the choice to work with (MSU strength coach) Matt Balis instead of preparing for the prom.”

Autry, who could give MSU an instant pass rushing threat, led East Mississippi Community College defensive linemen with 81 tackles (54 solos, 27 assists), including a team-high 11 sacks and 13 tackles for loss. The Albemarle, N.C., native also was credited with 41 quarterback hurries, four pass breakups and a pair of forced fumbles.

“He’s a guy we expect to make a real impact as soon as possible with all the college experience he has,” Wilson said. “He’s got all the tools and understands our system and how we do things here, so the transition should be almost immediate.”

MSU expects to receive National Letters of Intent on Wednesday from 330-pound tackle Nick James, of Long Beach, North Pike defensive end A.J. Jefferson, and Brandon High prospect Nelson Adams.

While historical evidence shows Mullen and his coaches prefer to redshirt incoming freshman, another high-profile verbal commitment — Will Redmon, of Memphis, Tenn. — could see the field next season. The four-star athlete, who is a 6-foot, 190-pounder, is projected to be a defensive back. He used his Twitter page Monday night to calm any fears of a surprise during his signing ceremony Wednesday at Memphis East High School.

“110% SIGNING MY LOI WENSDAY (sp) and I WILL Be GRINDing FOR #STATE,” Redmond tweeted.

Once again, Mullen’s message of MSU’s desire to dominate in-state talent remains the focus this year. Eighteen of MSU’s expected 28 signees are from the Magnolia State.

Only two players highly recruited by MSU — Alabama athlete Beniquez Brown and Long Beach linebacker Richie Brown — will remain uncommitted until they are expected to sign Wednesday with MSU. Of the 28 prospects MSU is allowed to bring in and to sign this season, the Bulldogs have verbal commitments from 26, including the four early enrollees.

“Thus far, Dan Mullen’s Bulldogs have gotten verbals from nine of the Magnolia State’s best prospects,” Rivals.com recruiting analyst Keith Niebuhr said. “That’s six more than the Rebels have entering the homestretch.”

Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.

David Miller

St. Patrick and his power to banish snakes are needed after the Starkville Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday against a measure that would have resolved flooding and creepy-crawly issues along Northside Drive by the end of this year.

Northside Drive, off J.W. Mosely Drive in Ward 7, has a storm ditch that’s badly eroded and collects stagnant water during heavy rain. The cost to fix the project is estimated at $58,000.

Residents told the board the channel has been an issue for more than 28 years. Charles Johnson and John Hill said flies and snakes venture into their yards when the channel fills up.

“The thing hasn’t been cleaned out since 1984,” Johnson said. “We’ve had five mayors since then … We ain’t paying enough taxes?” he added, suggesting the project be important to aldermen.

The $58,000 estimate is in the middle of the road for the city’s current stormwater drainage projects list, which has roughly 28 projects ranging in cost from under $10,000 to $500,000.

The drainage improvements list hasn’t been prioritized. The city is researching the possibility of adding a storm-sewer utility fee to help offset costs of the project list.

Vice Mayor Sandra Sistrunk said the city has about $450,000 in its capital improvement budget, with an unspecified amount earmarked for the completion of Pat Station Road. The budget could increase depending on the results of the audit of the previous fiscal year.

“We need to look at our ending fund balance,” Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn said. “We all saw the situation and how the erosion is going on, but you’re not there in the summer when the smell is coming out and the snakes are coming out. We need it complete by 2012. We’re not catering to the citizens’ needs. This isn’t quality of life for them.

“We can find money to do many things, but we’ve got to start here,” Vaughn added.

Vaughn, along with Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins and Ward 4 Alderman Richard Corey voted in favor of completing the Northside Drive ditch by the end of the year.

City Engineer Edward Kemp estimated reshaping the ditch and planting new grass would take about a month. He said it would resolve many of the issues with the ditch and make it easier to maintain. City crews have already added inlets and repoured concrete flumes coming off the street.

Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.

David Miller

“It makes no difference where you stand, as long as you stand.”

The powerful words of Monica Banks echoed through the blocks of downtown Monday during the Oktibbeha County branch of the NAACP’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day March and Rally, which concluded with a ceremony outside the county courthouse.

Banks, who serves as Oktibbeha County chancery clerk, was the featured speaker at the event, which capped five days of MLK Weekend 2012, organized by Volunteer Starkville and the Maroon Volunteer Center.

Banks’ speech focused on black Americans, regardless of status and economic class, continuing to lay a foundation for the next generation. Banks urged the roughly 200 people in attendance to take a stand against inequality.

“Though we may feel like we’ve arrived, the fight for economic equality and justice is not done,” Banks said.

Banks also stressed King’s Christian foundation and how it influenced his teachings and approach to changing American culture. Banks said today’s leaders lack moral foundation and, as a result, cannot fully care about the people that follow them.

“The greater challenge (King) issued was about being morally concerned for one another,” Banks said. “Dr. King said ‘Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.’

“He believed, as do I, that our moral convictions will determine how we exercise that power,” Banks added. “We need more bold, charismatic leaders who are about unifying and not causing division. They must have seasoned wisdom.”

Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.

David Miller

Seconds into William F. Winter’s speech Monday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Unity Breakfast, the former governor asked the hundreds in attendance an obvious but sometimes obscure question.

“We’re celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., (but) why is that important to us?” Winter asked. “Why is this important to us white folks, as well as black folks?”

Winter, the keynote speaker for the 18th edition of the breakfast, reminded the crowd gathered in the Mississippi State University Colvard Student Union ballroom that King’s efforts for equality helped liberate people of every race, sex and creed.

Winter shared a story of a luncheon hosted at the governor’s mansion, when he met Myrlie Evers, then widow of civil rights martyr Medgar Evers.

“I said to her, ‘We white folks owe as much to your husband as black folks do. He freed us,’” Winter said. “We were all prisoners of the system. We were not able to move freely or speak freely or do a lot of things we’d like to have done, because of an oppressive society and fanatical segregation.”

Winter, Mississippi’s governor from 1980-84, helped establish the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi. Inspired by the work of King, who was assassinated in 1968, Winter dedicated much of his service to education reform and equality.

“All of us, black and white alike, owe Dr. King a great debt of gratitude for helping lift that cloud of segregation that kept us all behind,” he said.

For more than a year, Winter served on former President Bill Clinton’s advisory committee on race relations. He visited 26 states and spoke with people from various racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds to compile surveys.

The common thread between all people was to “have a good life,” Winter said.

To Winter, the lack of trust between blacks and whites is still holding minorities back from obtaining better education for their children and a job to sustain their families.

And despite the world “turning over many times” since the civil rights era, Winter said the lack of trust is still an underlying issue in race relations.

“Aren’t those reasonable aspirations?” Winter offered. “When we invest in each other, all of those superficial problems will fade away. What we look like will not make a difference. We’ll finally achieve what the American dream is all about.

“Let us come together and make certain we do not cheat ourselves.”

Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.

David Miller

After nearly three months of discussion and tweaks, the Starkville Board of Aldermen could vote tonight to rezone areas of downtown and Highway 182.

Form-based codes, which encourage mixed-use development, will affect certain parts of the city, particularly Highway 182 and Russell Street. The rezoning will lessen parking restrictions and allow building closer to the curb.

The board will hold the final public hearing prior to voting. In recent meetings, the codes have been lauded by city officials, but residents find the matter confusing.

In other matters, seven properties in the city will be recommended for demolition tonight during the Board of Aldermen meeting.

The city offices of code enforcement and administrative hearing have identified parcels of property that are a “menace to the public health and safety of the community.”

Upon approval from the board, city crews will immediately begin demolition and cleanup of the listed properties.

According to the meeting’s e-packet from cityofstarkville.org, four of the properties are estates, including addresses 118 Curtis Circle, 132 Yellow Jacket Drive, 404 S. Lafayette St. and 207 Ware St. Additionally, the properties of Emma Macon at 106.5 Yellow Jacket Drive, Leslie B. Brasell at an unknown address behind Pizza Hut on Highway 12 and George and Wendell Leonard at 311 N. Washington St. are listed.

The process began in July 2010, when the board authorized City Attorney Chris Latimer to conduct title searches of identified properties. The code enforcement staff went to work shortly thereafter. Letters were sent to property owners in February and October of 2011.

Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.

David Miller

WEST POINT — The West Point Police Department is putting more officers in the streets after burglaries and two deaths.

Tuesday, the West Point Board of Selectmen hired three new police officers.

The new officers bring the department’s total to 28 sworn officers, 20 of whom will be assigned to patrol.

West Point Police Chief Tim Brinkley said the officers are in response to two killings since December, one of which — the slaying of Columbus resident LeAndre Johnson — remains unsolved. A rash of Christmastime burglaries also prompted the decision.

“The mayor and the board have been very supportive of our efforts, even before this, to make the force more visible in the community,” Brinkley said. “We know police presence is a big deterrent to crime. We’re trying to get more officers on the street.

“All leave has been canceled until further notice,” he added.

The officers will begin work Jan. 16.

Two of them, Kevin Smiley and Elbert Smith, are certified. Smiley has two years of law enforcement experience and is working with the Stillman College Police Department in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He also worked for the Greensboro, Ala. Police Department.

Smith has eight years of experience and is not an officer now. He’s been running his own computer business, Assistant Chief Avery Cook said.

The third officer, Nick Coe, will complete his criminal justice degree at Mississippi State University in May. He’s been a member of West Point’s auxiliary police force.

“If you know law enforcement, you know your numbers fluctuate,” Cook said. “You have officers leaving all the time for different reasons, but for us our strength is usually around 25 to 28 people.”

Cook said the department’s goal is 32 officers.

Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.

EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS

Associated Press

JACKSON — A Mississippi judge has temporarily blocked the release of 21 inmates who’d been given pardons or medical release by Republican Haley Barbour in one of his final acts as governor.

Circuit Judge Tomie Green issued an injunction late Wednesday at the request of Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood.

Hood said he believes Barbour might’ve violated the state constitution by pardoning some inmates who failed to give sufficient public notice that they were seeking to have their records cleared.

Barbour said in a statement Wednesday, a day after leaving office, that he believes people have misunderstood why he gave reprieves to more than 200 inmates. Most received full pardons, while others received suspended sentences because of medical conditions. Barbour said 189 of the inmates had already completed their incarceration.

Barbour was limited to two terms and issued the list of pardons and early releases Tuesday about the time his successor, Republican Phil Bryant, was being inaugurated. Barbour wouldn’t answer repeated questions about the pardons Tuesday.

In Wednesday’s statement, Barbour said, “The pardons were intended to allow them to find gainful employment or acquire professional licenses as well as hunt and vote. My decision about clemency was based upon the recommendation of the Parole Board in more than 90 percent of the cases.”

Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.

Nerissa Young

The Columbus-Lowndes County Port Authority finished some housekeeping items on projects that are coming to a close.

The board’s regular Wednesday meeting included an update on the Kior project.

Workers at the Kior plant are expected to begin testing equipment in the next month or two, Port Director John Hardy said.

Construction on the Kior plant began in 2011 and is expected to be complete this year. Kior expects to produce 11 million gallons of fuel blend stocks per year.

The $200 million investment is expected to bring at least 60 direct jobs. The plant will make biofuel pellets from wood chips and is expected to open later this year.

Hardy reported the third lane at the Kior plant access road is complete.

The project cost about $325,000 for the right-turn-only lane. A state grant paid $150,000, and Columbus Light and Water contributed $42,000 and in-kind work on utilities, he said. The remaining $130,000 is a loan to be paid back over 10 years. The city of Columbus, Lowndes County and the Port Authority will each contribute $5,000 annually to pay off the loan.

The board also voted to extend a lease and disburse money.

Hardy recommended the board approve the final version of an extended 10-year lease with Logistic Services from Mobile, Ala., to operate the port. The lease includes increased rental and tonnage rates.

Included in the lease is the right to use port-owned buildings, cranes, docks, Trackmobile, scales and forklift, he said. Not covered is the new front-end loader.

This lease replaces a previous 10-year lease with Logistic. Members approved it unanimously.

Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.

DAVID MILLER

STARKVILLE — When a Starkville man graduated high school in the 1940s, there was little doubt what his next move would be.

The United States was in the heart of World War II, and any able-bodied man was bound for military service, either by choice or through the draft.

“That was back in the day when your only fear was that they weren’t going to take you,” Joe Stockwell said. “There was a crying need for soldiers, sailors and airmen.

“I don’t know how many people we had under arms in those days, but it was a lot.”

Stockwell, a native of New Roads, La., became a staff sergeant in the 410th Infantry Regiment. He was immediately sent to France, where he spent more than two years fighting alongside British and Soviet soldiers to thwart Adolph Hitler and Nazi-ruled Germany, which dominated French forces and took over the country in under two months.

It took five years for Allied forces to push out the Germans.

France, whose army was nearly wiped out by the Germans, hasn’t forgotten.

Stockwell and 16 other American soldiers from the across the southeast will be honored this afternoon with the French Legion of Honor during a ceremony in Atlanta.

Founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, the National Order of the Legion of Honor is the highest honor in France. It recognizes eminent services to the French Republic. Recipients of this honor are designated by the president of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Consul General of France in Atlanta, Pascal Le Deunff, will present the Legion of Honor to soldiers who saw most, if not all, of their ground combat in France.

The award is the equivalent to being knighted in Britain, Stockwell said.

“It’s a beautiful gesture. Absolutely beautiful,” Stockwell said.

The retired professor of English at Mississippi State University traveled to Atlanta with his wife, Rebecca, and two children.

Stockwell didn’t keep up with any of the soldiers from his regiment after he was discharged in 1945 but often made trips to France after meeting French citizens in the United States. He spent six months in a civilian clerical position in France before returning to Louisiana to begin his undergraduate studies at Tulane University.

He doesn’t know any of the other 16 veterans chosen to be honored today, but he was eager to meet them.

“Atlanta will be quite the experience,” Stockwell said. “It says something that I’m even going. It’ll be a totally unique experience to meet the others. And to essentially be knighted, that’s a whole new experience.”

Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.

DAVID MILLER

STARKVILLE — An undisclosed number of the 22 candidates in the Starkville School District superintendent pool have been eliminated, though the board of trustees won’t release names until next week.

The board met Tuesday and took only one action in open session, unanimously agreeing to let the Mississippi School Boards Association — contracted to assist in the search — handle background checks of semifinalists.

Discussion of candidates and which ones were eliminated from contention took place in executive session.

Board President Keith Coble said the board agreed not to reveal the number of names forwarded back to MSBA, which will contact the remaining candidates to see if they’re still interested in the position.

“If that list is short enough, the semifinalists will be finalists,” Coble said. “If it’s long, it might be a more complicated process. The logistics of how many people we bring in, the timing … it’ll just be a little more complicated.”

Coble expects MSBA to return a list of candidates who are still interested and have passed a background check by next week. The board will call a special meeting to release the names of semifinalists, or if the list is short enough, a list of finalists.

During executive session, members mostly discussed their personal top choices and compared notes, Coble said.

“There were some logistical questions, but that was the main focus of executive session,” he added.

When the board releases names next week, it will set up closed-door interviews and coordinate public sessions with each candidate. The board briefly discussed how it would handle public interviews but opted to wait until next week to finalize plans.

“Some people may withdraw once we know our process,” said board member Eric Heiselt, noting candidates whose current employers may discourage interviewing for other jobs.

Coble said a target date for hire wasn’t set, but the board agreed the process should move as quickly as possible when they receive the semifinalist list.

School districts in Tupelo, Columbus, Oxford and Natchez — all similar in size to Starkville — are searching for superintendents. MSBA consultant Harold Fisher said in December there are overlapping candidates for each of the jobs.

Coble downplayed the need to make a quick hire to avoid losing a top candidate to another district.

“That’s probably a little bit in the back of our mind,” Coble said. “The longer you wait, who knows what’s going to happen. We just feel, for a whole variety of reasons and that’s probably one of them, that we have to move quickly.”

Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.