Ellington

October 14, 2004 MY FRIEND ZELL: The Mississippi Republican Party sponsored a Victory reception Monday night to raise funds to help the Bush campaign. The main speaker was Georgia Democratic Sen. Zell Miller—the most conservative Democrat still in Washington who gave an angry keynote address at the Republican National Convention that even embarrassed many Republicans. He told the faithful Monday, whole helping to raise $350,000 for the cause: "I am here to help the president in any way that I can. My good friend Haley Barbour asked me to come and here I am." Most of Miller's speech was devoted to politically humorous stabs at John Kerry. "This man does not even believe in the Second Amendment; he has cast 50 votes against it. This is a man with an NRA rating of "F," Miller said to bursts of laughter.

DEEP CAMP RULES: Lest you think Kerry believes all guns should be banned, though (thus that ‘F' rating), he says he is a hunter and supports hunters' rights. Yet, he voted for the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban, neither of which the NRA thinks are cool to do. Yet, it seems that neither candidate is actually up on their guns. Field & Stream recently asked Bush: "What guns do you have in your gun cabinet?" He answered: "A couple deer rifles and a varmint rifle. A .248?" We hear that there are about as many .248 caliber rifles as there are WMDs in Iraq. That is, it doesn't exist. Kerry is not exactly up on deer-camp lingo, either, and told a reporter about the biggest deer he ever shot: "Oh, I don't know. Probably an 8-pointer or something like that." Bush told Outdoor Life that his favorite gun is a Weatherby shotgun he got as a gift. "Weatherby is an American-made brand of gun, the kind of expensive, glossy collector's piece you might expect the son of a Texas oilman to shoot," wrote the Telluride (Colo.) Daily Planet where we got this gun gossip. Asked the same question, Kerry said his favorite gun was "the M-16 that saved my life and that of my crew in Vietnam," leading the Daily Planet to give him "macho points," if little else. The writer said he wasn't impressed with the ‘F' rating, though, because "you don't need exploding bullets or an AK-47 to hunt whitetails."

A KINDER, GENTLER WAL-MART: Wal-Mart is giving $3,500 to the Jackson Police Department's S.W.A.T. team in order to help with the purchase of a new car. The first grant is a matching grant for $1,000. The Jackson Wal-Mart store will match up to $1,000 to non-profit organizations that have fund raisers meeting the standards outlined by the store. The second is for $3,500 called the Safe Neighborhoods grant. Wal-Mart's grant program runs from Feb. 1 to Jan. 31 of their fiscal year. Call 922-3406.

GOOD CRIME NEWS: JPD is reporting that falling crime rates are continuing. Robberies and burglaries are down 25 percent so far this year over last year, and car thefts—which spiked in 2003—are down 28 percent. Major crime is down overall 21 percent.

ACCREDIT US PLEASE: The JPD is seeking accreditation from the Mississippi Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission. Chief Robert Moore said in his weekly media briefing: "I am on the commission and will do everything I can to see that our department meets the requirement for accreditation." Some of the benefits, he says, are: a reduction of the agencies' risk to lawsuits; improvement of law enforcement community relations and an increase in employee input and interaction in the agency to promote the idea of quality performance by all personnel.

BLUES IN RESIDENCE: Award-winning blues musician T. J. Wheeler will be a blues musician in residence Oct. 11-22 at Baker, Woodville Heights and Oak Forest elementaries. His visit has been underwritten by a grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson and help from Baker's adopter, Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell and Berkowitz. After completing the residency, Wheeler and students from these schools will perform at the JPS School Board Meeting Performance on Oct. 18, at the joint PTA (Baker, Oak Forest, & Woodville Heights) meeting held at Baker Elementary on Oct. 21 and a traveling show performance on Oct. 22.

YO, TEACH: This year's recipient of the Humanities Teacher Award is Dr. Karen Laubengayer, associate professor in the Music Department at Jackson State University. This award is given annually by the Mississippi Humanities Council as a part of a celebration of Arts and humanities every October. Lauengayer has performed with many different orchestras including the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Meridian Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and internationally in Puerto Rico and England.