Mississippi

So begins the first full week of the new year, and it promises to be a busy one.

• New MSU football coach Dan Mullen is hunkered down with the Florida Gators as they prepare for the BCS title game (Thursday vs. Oklahoma). As for what happens after that game, UF coach Urban Meyer expects a seamless transition when Steve Addazio takes over Mullen’s role.

• To the basketball court, MSU’s men wrap up non-conference play tonight against Western Kentucky (9-4), which reached the Sweet 16 last season. Tipoff at the Hump is 7 p.m. It will be televised by CSS and has been picked up by ESPN360.

(Read the full post about ‘Back to Work’…)

OK, not worldwide. But new MSU coach Dan Mullen will be making several stops around the region next week to speak to Bulldog fans. As Gregg Ellis might say, this is a little Germans – it was released a couple of hours ago. But here is the release.

Following Monday events in the Mississippi Delta and Memphis areas, Mullen and other university officials will speak to fans in Nashville, Hattiesburg and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Each of the events is open to current Bulldog Club members as well as the general public.

The tour will begin with a stop at the Charles W. Capps, Jr. Entrepreneurial Center in Stoneville, Miss., on Monday, January 12.

(Read the full post about ‘Mullen Worldwide Tour Continues’…)

It was a record-setting/record-tying night at Humphrey Coliseum. Sophomore Ravern Johnson scored a career-high 26 points – his previous best was 21 – and set a school record for single-game 3-point accuracy by hitting 6 of 7 from downtown. MSU was 14 of 22 from deep, tying a team record for most 3-pointers made in a game.

So there’s your story. Over its last two games, State is 25 of 47 (53.2%) from 3-point range. Nice.

Before we get to the quotes, a couple of notes on a couple of players who have been MIA:

• Sophomore F Kodi Augustus hasn’t played in the last five games (he’s averaging 7.3 points and 5.0 rebounds).

(Read the full post about ‘Hoops: MSU 95, Western Kentucky 67′…)

Authorities in Neshoba County think they have located a missing plane belonging to an Arkansas pilot.

Winston County Sheriff Randy Thomas said his deputies discovered the wrecked, yellow-and-blue crop-duster about 5:30 p.m. Monday near the Winston, Kemper and Neshoba county lines in Neshoba County.

“Once we found it, we notified Neshoba County and (Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol),” Thomas said. “We’re not sure if the pilot was ever located.”

Ashley Smith of Vicksburg said she believes the pilot is Monty Hudson, her father.

Smith said Hudson was flying from Greenville, Ala., to Cleveland and from Cleveland to Jonesboro, Ark., when his plane disappeared on Friday.

She said Monday night she’d been told her father’s plane had been found.

(Read the full post about ‘Missing crop-duster believed found in Neshoba’…)

Former state Rep. Tommy Horne, who spent nearly three decades in the Legislature despite a connection to the infamous civil rights case that inspired the 1998 movie Mississippi Burning, has died.

He was 72.

The Meridian lawmaker served 27 years, off and on, in the Mississippi House beginning in 1972 and ending in 2004, eventually becoming chairman of the Constitution Committee and the Rules Committee.

Although the charges against him were dismissed, Horne carried throughout his adult life the stigma of having been indicted by authorities in 1964 on allegations of withholding information in the slayings of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County.

Horne died Wednesday while visiting relatives in Lonoke, Ark., according to officials with James F.

(Read the full post about ‘Former longtime Mississippi legislator Horne dead at 72′…)

Victim killed for TV, says prosecutor

Jermell Mobley of Jackson was called to a Rally’s fast-food restaurant and ambushed for a flat-screen TV, a Hinds County prosecutor said Monday.

Mobley, 24, was shot 10 times inside his car in the Rally’s parking lot off Woodrow Wilson Avenue on Nov. 25. He died two weeks later at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

A preliminary hearing was conducted Monday in Hinds County Court for Idris Hampton, 27, one of three individuals charged with capital murder.

Judge Bill Barnett sent the case to a grand jury for possible indictment on the capital murder charge.

(Read the full post about ‘Slaying suspect denied bond’…)

The city of Jackson has increased oversight for its gasoline credit cards and has begun to reduce questionable purchases, city officials told the Jackson City Council on Monday.

But the progress report on the Fuelman discount gas program also shows the city still has not gained complete control over the cards.

“I think we’re taking baby steps to get the problem resolved,” Councilman Jeff Weill said.

Monday’s update follows weeks of public scrutiny into the Fuelman program.

Jackson uses Fuelman to fill up city-owned and city-operated vehicles. The service gives the city a 30-cent-per-gallon discount at participating stations.

In December, a report obtained by The Clarion-Ledger showed widespread misuse of the cards.

(Read the full post about ‘Council scrutinizes gas cards’…)

Members of the Jackson City Council are questioning whether Mayor Frank Melton can continue to run the city with his chronic health problems.

Melton checked into St. Dominic Hospital this past weekend for the third time since November. A city spokeswoman said she did not know when Melton would leave the hospital, saying only that he would stay Monday night.

But Chief Administrative Officer Robert Walker said the city is still running smoothly.

“We know what our jobs are, and we do them,” he said.

A court document released last week shed new light on Melton’s health. It says the mayor is in end stage cardiomyopathy.

(Read the full post about ‘Council questions if Melton well enough to remain as mayor’…)

Emergency officials are bracing for a potentially violent weather system expected to hit parts of the state today.

The National Weather Service on Monday issued flash-flood watches and warnings for dozens of counties in north-central and southeast Mississippi until 6 p.m today.

The highest threat for tornadoes will be in the south and eastern parts of the state along the I-59 corridor, while heavy rain and flooding could affect all areas, according to the NWS.

Meteorologist Ashley Wester said the most severe weather for southeastern residents could come anywhere from late morning until late evening.

Wester said she expects residents in north and central Mississippi to see more heavy rain than tornadoes.

“The total rainfall by the end of the event in the Jackson area could be between 2 and 3 inches - and maybe more in some areas,” Wester said.

People living in low-lying areas or near creeks, streams and rivers should watch water levels for the possibility of flooding.

“I can’t stress enough that folks should not try to drive across a flooded road,” Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Executive Director Mike Womack said in a news release.

“You cannot tell how deep the water might be or if the road has been washed out underneath.”

The state Emergency Operations Center in Pearl will be monitoring the weather situation and assisting counties, if requested.

Deeper cuts to Mississippi’s budget appear likely as December revenues fell 9.5 percent below what was anticipated, and state officials expect the effects of another round of trimming would be more keenly felt.

Almost $356 million was collected last month, according to the State Tax Commission. That’s $16.6 million less than the amount collected in December 2007.

Gov. Haley Barbour said Monday he is evaluating what to do next. State fiscal officials are required by law to cut when revenues fall below a certain amount.

Mississippi trimmed $42 million from its $5 billion budget in November - a 2 percent cut in the fiscal year that began last July - and Barbour warned that more cuts would be necessary if revenues didn’t improve.

Many agencies made the cut by not filling vacant positions.

(Read the full post about ‘Deeper state budget cuts likely, officials say’…)