Will Pearl River County enter into another struggle between the northern part of the county and the southern part of the county over services and other amenities with the installation of a virtually new board of supervisors?

The city of Poplarville is growing — a self-evident fact when you look at the changes that have occurred and are occurring. Having grown up in what was once a sleepy stop on the railroad I can attest to many changes just in my 50-something years here. Others could document much more.

Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps has taken action to prevent further violence at the maximum security Unit 32 at the state prison at Parchman, but is it enough?
Gang leaders and the severely mentally ill prisoners were ordered transferred to other institutions last week after one inmate was stabbed to death — about a week after a .380 caliber semi-auto pistol was discovered in a cell. Other handmade weapons were found after a search of the unit, Epps said.

Reaction to President Bush’s decision to overturn Scooter Libby’s prison term offers a clear example of the polarization of American politics.
On the one hand, there was Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson.
“I know that this is a great relief to him, his wife and children,” Thompson said of Libby. “While for a long time I have urged a pardon for Scooter, I respect the president’s decision. This will allow a good American, who has done a lot for his country, to resume his life.”
On the other, there was Democrat Hillary Clinton.

I’m still not convinced about this whole global warming thing — there is just too much that we don’t know — but a few snippets from the Animal Kingdom have appeared lately that make you wonder if they sense big changes are brewing in the world. I have always held animals in fairly high regard, whether I was hunting them, admiring them, avoiding them or consuming them. Don’t hunt them much anymore, mostly because I’ve gotten lazier with age — preferring to let someone with more energy and skill do that. Don’t get me wrong; I’ll take advantage of a meal of edible game if offered, but don’t ask me to catch and prepare it.

Now that Gov. Haley Barbour and state Treasurer Tate Reeves have been successful in halting funding to the anti-smoking Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, it is important that an effective new effort take its place.

Mississippi could face worse challenges than trying to figure out what to do with a $10 million surplus in the state budget.