Valerie Wells

Recent Stories

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Media's Need for Speed

One of the year's largest stories didn't catch anyone by surprise.

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Eight Years in, State Still Neglecting Kids

The foster home was not a haven for the little girl no one cared about. One of the people living in the home was a convicted rapist.

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As If We Lost the Saints

A tornado touched down in the New Orleans suburb of Arabi the evening of May 23. It was a busy Wednesday night in The Times-Picayune newsroom. The paper's website, NOLA.com, posted reports of heavy wind damage in Arabi, then later the news of a possible tornado striking. Staffers were busy collecting the information and reporting it promptly. But the tornado is not the only thing that kept New Orleans' journalists up all that night.

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Conducting a Festival

Four smiling mop-topped men with skinny ties strum guitars to a familiar backbeat. "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah," they confirm in unison as if they really know something. Paul's big eyes and John's long chin move with the rhythm. It's the present, 2012, but the 1960s have returned. The four men in skinny suits not only sound like the Beatles, each member of this tribute performance resembles one of the Fab Four.

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Art on the Gulf

Silvery, coppery structures twist among old live oak trees near the shore of the Mississippi Sound, close to where the Biloxi Schoon­er docks. This is the site of the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum, a complex of buildings that includes four metallic pods that torque like ancient, hurricane-battered trees. It also serves as a welcome center to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

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Gulf Coast Arts

Silvery, coppery structures twist among old live oak trees near the shore of the Mississippi Sound, close to where the Biloxi Schoon­er docks. This is the site of the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum, a complex of buildings that includes four metallic pods that torque like ancient, hurricane-battered trees. It also serves as a welcome center to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Curious Louise

Louise Borden was looking through a copy of Publisher's Weekly in 1995 when she learned a curious fact. A short article mentioned that children's authors H.A. Rey and Margret Rey had escaped the Nazi occupation of France on bicycle carrying the first manuscripts of what would be "Curious George."

Small Mementos

The Old Capitol Museum (100 S. State St., 601-576-6920) highlights three powerful Mississippi women in a new exhibit that continues through the end of June.

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Free State of Jones

Jones County is a study in duality. It has two courthouses in two county seats: Ellisville and Laurel. During the Civil War, the county supposedly seceded from the state of Mississippi and the Confederacy, a contested historical legend. Howard Industries boosted economic development in the county but, in 2008, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested almost 600 undocumented immigrants who worked there. It was the largest ICE raid ever.

Under Pressure: Fighting to Keep ‘Choice' In State

Shelley Abrams is fighting the state of Virginia's attack on abortion rights. She oversees several clinics that provide legal abortion services, including one in Virginia and several other southern states. Abrams is also executive director of Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only abortion facility in the state.

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