Howard Exec Pleads Guilty
Jose Humberto Gonzalez, 45, former personnel director at Howard Industries in Laurel, Miss., pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy related to the company's hiring of undocumented immigrants. On August 25, 2008, Howard Industries was the site of the biggest immigration raid in U.S. history, during which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers placed 595 immigrants under administrative arrest, nine of whom have since pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft.
Developers Push a Lake for Downtown
UPDATED: December 15, 2009
Jackson developer David Watkins, whose ventures include the King Edward Hotel and the Farish Street entertainment district, unveiled plans for a downtown lake and riverwalk at a media event yesterday. The project, which is still in the early stages of planning, would complement the problematic Two Lakes project for the Pearl River, but its completion would not depend on that development, according to Ben Allen, president of Downtown Jackson Partners, which sponsored the event.
Violent Crime Down; Property Crime Spikes
Major crimes in Jackson rose 11.9 percent last week, with a drop in violent crime not enough to offset a spike in property crimes, according to weekly statistics released at a Jackson Police Department meeting today. For the week ending Dec. 6, Jackson police officers reported three fewer violent crimes than the previous week, keeping with the overall trend: For the year-to-date, Jackson has seen a 9.6 percent drop in violent crime from 2008.
Michael Feldman
Radio quipster Michael Feldman has been compared to Groucho Marx, though without the cigar and brothers. A lapsed schoolteacher and failed cab driver, he has been hosting the comedy quiz radio show "Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know?" since 1985.
Chief Coleman takes Oath of Office
Jackson Police Chief Rebecca Coleman took the oath of office Wednesday afternoon. Supreme Court Justice James Graves administered the oath, after a speech of faint regret by Jackson State University President Ronald Mason, who surrendered Coleman as director of JSU public safety when Mayor Harvey Johnson appointed her as chief in October.
The Best In Sports In 7 Days
What's up in local sports over the next seven days?
State goes to La-La Land
On Saturday, Mississippi State (5-2) travels to Anaheim, Calif., to play UCLA (2-5) in the annual John R. Wooden Classic. Both teams began the season ranked in the top 25, but have fallen out recently.
Start Moving
It's hard to describe the freedom that comes with not relying on a car for transportation, because for many people this means just the opposite. Last week a group of about 25 progressive Jacksonians participated in an experiment called carLESS week.
A Blessed Man
Wyatt Waters unfolds the legs on his handmade wooden easel and sits down to paint a neighborhood scene in Belhaven. He is on one of those tree-lined streets with historic homes, neat lawns and attentive homeowners.
[Stiggers] I'm Not Black!
Motel Williams: "Welcome to the first B.I.D. (Blacks in Denial) conference. Before I begin my brief speech, I want everyone to know that I'm not black; I'm Scandinavian!
Signs of Hope
A coworker of time was standing at her window looking over the head of the stone Eudora Welty who looks just past the statues of William Faulkner and Richard Wright on the corner of Lamar and Capitol streets. It occurred to her that the traffic should not be stopped at a green light, so she studied the scene more carefully.
[Collier] (Re)Engagement
One of the things that consistently brings me joy in life is writing. There are times, however, when it gives me grief. Like now. How does one re-establish themselves with an audience who gave them their start and watched them grow? Let me explain.
Master of Puppets
For generations of American children, Jim Henson's imagination is hard to distinguish from their own. Henson's Sesame Street characters and Muppets have become enduring archetypes: Miss Piggy, the personification of frivolous vanity; Cookie Monster, a creature of pure id.
Notes of Love
This winter, one of the greatest known love stories will captivate its audience when soprano Kathleen Van De Graaff and bass-baritone Peter Van De Graaff, perform in "The Life and Love of Robert and Clara Schuma
The Art of Film
Esther Blueburger is not your typical teenager. Determined to be true to herself at all cost, Esther breaks out of the confinement of her repressed private school and her toxic family by running away to attend her friend Sunni's public school, disguising herself as a Swedish foreign-exchange student.
There's No Place Like Home
After fierce winds encircle a house lifting it off its foundation, 12-year-old Dorothy and her little dog, Toto, step outside and enter a land more beautiful than words. To their amazement, they have reached a point of no return as they meet Glenda The Good Witch and the munchkins, and are hailed as heroes for slaying the Wicked Witch who lies beneath their house.
A Memory You'll Never Forget
Queenie the dog, Buddy the 7-year-old and his cousin Sook, an aging woman with white hair, stand in the kitchen ready to celebrate finishing their Christmas tradition of making fruitcakes for friends.
[Herman's Picks] Vol. 11, No. 13
Between now and the new year, you have quite a few choice options for getting out of the house.
The Correction
Neil White, a Mississippian who published newspapers and magazines in Oxford and on the Gulf Coast, was arrested in the early 1990s for "kiting" checks—passing them back and forth between banks without funds in either one to cover the other.
Did State Mismanage Stimulus Funds?
A Jackson company is alleging in Hinds County Chancery Court that the state mismanaged $3.75 million in federal stimulus funds by passing over the lowest and best bidder for a contract to "green" public buildings.