Cool temperatures remained over the area during the week, with rain and temperatures in the 50s giving way to clear skies with daytime highs in the 40s and lows in the 30s. Weekend temps were expected to be around 60.
The Mississippi River was at 24.55 feet Jan. 10. It was at 23.70 feet Friday. Flood stage is 43 feet.

Former Warren County Clerk Shelly Ashley-Palmertree withdrew her civil claim against the Board of Supervisors and the Office of State Auditor filed two years ago in Hinds County Chancery Court. Palmertree filed the lawsuit challenging the county’s and state’s claims she owed the county $671,751.75 in excessive salary above the state-set cap for circuit and chancery clerks and questionable subcontractor payments to her father and predecessor in office, Larry Ashley. She is serving a five-year prison sentence for embezzling $12,000 from her office’s civil and criminal accounts in 2012, and faces additional criminal charges.

KJ’s River Town Grille owner David Belden filed suit in Hinds County Chancery Court against the City of Vicksburg and the Mississippi Department of Revenue, claiming he was discriminated against by the Revenue Department’s decision on Dec. 19 to pull resort status for his and three other businesses at the request of the city. The state’s action meant the businesses could no longer sell alcohol 24 hours a day, and must follow city ordinance, which requires alcohol sales to stop at 2 a.m. The action did not affect the city’s four casinos. Besides KJ’s, L.D.’s Kitchen, Beechwood and Monsour’s at the Biscuit Company were also lost their resort status.
In other city news, customers on Vicksburg’s natural gas system will pay more for gas after the city pulled a 35 center per 1,000 cubic feet credit it had been customers in anticipation of a rate increase from Gulf South Pipeline, which transports and stores the city’s natural gas. The rate, which received temporary approval from a Federal Energy Commission judge, goes into effect May 1 and is expected to cost the city an extra $1.3 million a year.
• Mayor George Flaggs said the city’s form of government was outdated and needed to be changed, and that change must come from the voters. The form of government was one of several topics, including police and fire department budgets and the proposed sports complex during a live televised one-hour question and answer session with the voters.

A hotel and restaurant tax was proposed as a means to fund a proposed sports complex at meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and the Warren County Board of Supervisors. The special tax was one of several options discussed by the two boards. The city board has been trying to get county officials to join the city in funding and supporting the proposed complex.

Six Warren County men accused of being part of a burglary ring that stole items from sheds and commercial buildings in the county and in Louisiana were arrested by county and Madison Parish authorities. Five of the men were being held in the Warren County Jail. The sixth was being held at the Madison Parish Detention Center in Tallulah. The arrests were the result of a joint investigation by the Warren County Sheriff’s Department, Vicksburg police and the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Board of Supervisors President Bill Lauderdale, the county’s longest serving county board member announced he will not seek re-election for a seventh term. Lauderdale was first elected to the board in 1987.

Jasmine Murray, Miss Mississippi 2014, visited Dana Road Elementary to help kick off a series of health-related programs at the school sponsored by Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi.

Local deaths included, Jacqueline “Jackie” Fillebaum, Carrie Lighter, Bill Stanford, Linda Faye Salas, Richard Henry Gates, Tony C. McElroy, Phlandis Younger, Rodger D. Harris, Tim Sumrall, Julia Donelson Ehrhardt, Deborah K. Lynn and Celestine Martin Fuller.