Week in Vicksburg
Published 12:00 am Sunday, November 2, 2008
The first frosts of fall were recorded as a cold front pushed overnight lows into the low 30s on four nights. Days were spectacular with highs ranging from 57 degrees to 82 and no rain recorded.
The Mississippi River varied little on the gauge at Vicksburg during the week, starting the period at 9.1 feet and ending at 8.6 feet. The forecast was for a reading of 8.6 feet today.
Future support of Vicksburg as an owner with three other local governments in Vicksburg Tallulah Regional Airport remained in doubt. A meeting on the topic was canceled.
Mount Hebron M.B. Church announced plans to celebrate the church’s 100th anniversary.
Vicksburg blanked Canton 41-0, St. Aloysius beat West Lincoln 35-14 and Porters Chapel defeated Benton 32-8 in high school football action. Clinton came from behind to beat Warren Central 17-9.
A mistrial in the Oktibbeha County trial of Vicksburg-based trooper Dane Davenport was declared almost as soon as it began. A witness gave impermissible testimony. Davenport remains charged with child molestation-related charges in Oktibbeha and Warren counties.
Georgina Stanfield and Buddy Hallberg, the Vicksburg Theatre Guild’s two Lifetime Achievement Award winners, both took the stage for a performance of the “Gold In The Hills” melodrama.
For the second year a row and the 10th time since 1989, the Engineering Research and Development Center in Vicksburg was recognized with the Army’s top award for large research facilities.
Warren County was reported to be among the third of all in Mississippi with more names listed on poll books than the U.S. Census shows as adults living in the county.
Riverwalk Casino opened as crews finished placing asphalt. The casino is the fifth in Vicksburg and the first to open since the initial flurry of construction ended in 1994.
School officials reported excellent results so far in its experiment with gender segregation classes in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades.
Inaugural events for Dr. George Ross, new president of Alcorn State University, included a dinner and reception in Vicksburg.
Ashlea Brandon, daughter of Carl Brandon and Debra Knox Brandon, was named homecoming queen at Vicksburg High School.
Tour-home owners cited low response during the fall for canceling a special Christmas showcase of homes.
Michael Gaul, director of the Warren County 911 Dispatch Center, said a move into the new facilities at 1401 Clay should happen in early December.
Trustees of the Vicksburg Warren School District voted 4-1 in favor of a broader, 10-point grading scale to go into effect next fall.
Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, National Park Service Director Mary Bomar and country music star Trace Adkins participated in a ceremony lauding local success in raising matching money for replacement markers and other work in the Vicksburg National Military Park.
Grand jurors indicted two men for June homicides. One of them Eric Jackson, 26, faces the possibility of three life terms for the deaths of Denise Jackson, a mother of three, her unborn child and Preston Qualls. The gunfire reportedly followed a dispute over a video game.
U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran was the honored guest at Beechwood Elementary where students and national officials thanked him for his work in restoring an allocation to the Reading is Fundamental program.
Deaths during the week included Robert Lee Baldwin, Kenneth Oran McDougal, Margaret M. Cattlin, Joe D. Guin, James Patterson, Edgar Price Sr., Caldine L. Younger, Audrey Lucille Blocksom Kinzer, Larry Tillman, Marvis Jean Ellis, Nettie Ford, Fatina L. Johnson, Dennis Wayne Jones and Nicie Bingham Young.