Inside today: Crossroads Magazine Sports Rewind Edition
&URVVURDGV 2011-2012 Sports Rewind Edition
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CHS senior Erin Frazier stands out in 3 sports
Also inside Kossuth football’s 12-1 season Biggersville boys basketball makes state 1A title run Corinth wins state titles in golf, track O Alcorn Central wins state dance title O O
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Daily Corinthian Vol. 116, No. 104
• Corinth, Mississippi •
Today
Tonight
85
60
22 pages • Two sections
Easom Outreach continues progress BY JEBB JOHNSTON jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com
Preparations are being made to return the dormant South Corinth Elementary School campus to life as a community center. It is set to begin with small steps — two feeding programs launching in a couple of months — with hope for a full range of community center services to come later. “We have repainted and refurbished the whole kitchen area to get it ready for the two programs,” said Samuel Crayton Jr., chairman of the Easom Outreach Foundation Board of Directors. “We are still in the process of getting the building transferred.” “This looks so good,” said an impressed Minister Laura Copeland in the newly painted cafeteria area on Saturday morning, one of several volunteers getting a tour of progress by Crayton. “People are really getting interested when they see the progress and they want to volunteer,” Crayton told Copeland, as five Mississippi Department of Corrections inmates were busy painting or cleaning in addition to the vol-
Partly sunny
National Day of Prayer set for Thursday BY STEVE BEAVERS sbeavers@dailycorinthian.com
vide meals for youth while school is out, and the South Corinth campus was one of the
Area Christians will get the chance to come together and pray for America. The 61st National Day of Prayer will be held May 3 from 11:45 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Alcorn County Courthouse. The local Day of Prayer — in its 20th year — is part of the national movement held the first Thursday in May. More than 35,000 prayer gatherings will be conducted by around 40,000 volunteers across the United States. “This is designed where the church of Corinth, regardless of race or denomination, can come together and pray for our country,” said First Presbyterian pastor Don Elliott, who along with church prayer leader Becky Stewart is coordinating the event. “I can’t help but think with the hard times people are going through and this being an election year that this year’s event is more im-
Please see CENTER | 2A
Please see PRAYER | 2A
Staff photo by Mark Boehler
Samuel Crayton Jr., chairman of the Easom Outreach Foundation Board of Directors, shows volunteers Laura Copeland and Bobby Ratliff the progress that has been made in the cafeteria area of the former Easom and South Corinth school. unteers stopping by. Crayton is confident the building and the grounds will be ready by the June 4 launch date of the first service, which
will see the campus open as a participating site in the Summer Feeding Program coordinated by the Corinth School District. It is designed to pro-
Alcorn County jobless rate slips under 10 percent in March BY JEBB JOHNSTON jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com
Alcorn County unemployment slipped under 10 percent for the first time since 2008 as all Mississippi counties saw rate decreases in March. The county rate of 9.1 percent is down from 10.1 percent in February and 11.8 percent a year earlier. The county had 1,410 people unemployed and looking for work, down from 1,910 a year earlier, according to the Mississippi Department of Employment Security. During the same period, the civilian labor force, which includes people working or ac-
tively seeking work, decreased from 16,130 to 15,510. The number employed decreased slightly from 14,220 to 14,100. Manufacturing sector employment for the month numbered 2,040, down from 2,380 a year earlier. Nonmanufacturing employment totaled 11,150, up from 11,020 in March 2011, with government and retail trade having the most workers, at 3,200 and 2,100, respectively. The county had 81 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the month, down from 94 a year earlier, and 799 continued claims, less than half of the year-ago total of
1,624. Regular benefits paid in the county totaled $122,714, down from $307,522 a year earlier. Among neighboring counties, Prentiss fared best with a jobless rate at 9.1 percent, down from 11.7 percent in February. Tishomingo County is at 10.1 percent, down from 12.7 percent, and Tippah County registered at 10.7 percent, down from 13.9 percent. Jobless rates are typically improved in March as warmer weather benefits construction and other sectors. Results from Mississippi’s nonfarm employment survey,
which is counted by the location of establishments, reported a not seasonally adjusted employment increase of 6,100 over the month but a decrease of 2,700 from one year ago. Industry sectors registering the largest monthly employment gains were leisure & hospitality and manufacturing. State unemployment was at 8.7 percent, down from 9.5 percent in February and 10.4 percent in March 2011. Rates ranged from 5.4 percent in Rankin County to 15.9 percent in Holmes County. Across the U.S., regional and state unemployment rates were
little changed in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Thirty states recorded monthly unemployment rate decreases; 8 states posted rate increases; and 12 states and the District of Columbia had no change. Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia registered unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier. The national jobless rate was little changed from February at 8.2 percent but was 0.7 percentage point lower than in March 2011. April often continues the March trend of improvement due to seasonal employment patterns.
Corinth Rotary names Hopkins as Citizen of Year BY BOBBY J. SMITH bjsmith@dailycorinthian.com
The Rotary Club of Corinth honored individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the community at the their annual award’s ceremony on Thursday. First among the awards presented were the Teacher of the Year Awards. Recipients of this award included Chris Coleman - Corinth High School; Albertine Warren - Corinth Middle School; Amy Williams - Glen Elementary; and Donnita Ginn - Kossuth High School. “We appreciate the Rotary recognizing our teachers,” said
Corinth Principal Russ Elam. “Teachers aren’t recognized enough, and we appreciate what you do for the school systems.” Daily Corinthian Publisher Reece Terry received the Rotary Vocation Service Award. The award signifies dedication to the Rotary principles through work. Terry is a past president of the Mississippi Press Association, the 2012 chairman of the United Way of Corinth & Alcorn County, a Salvation Army board member and organizer of the annual Corinth Rotary Club/Daily Corinthian Christmas Basket Drive.
Allan Lee, owner of Corinth Brick, was named the Rotarian of the Year. Lee is one of the prime organizers of the annual Corinth Run With Rotary 5K race. “He’s been involved from its inception and one of the people most responsible for making sure that’s a successful fundraiser,” said Rotary President Steve Icardi. Corinth Literacy Council Coordinator Dorothy Hopkins was named Citizen of the Year for over 20 years of working to raise the level of literacy in Al-
Index Stocks...... 7A Classified......6B Outdoors......3B Wisdom......4B
Weather......5A Obituaries......3A Opinion......4A Sports......8A
Please see ROTARY | 11A
Staff photo by Bobby J. Smith
Rotary President Steve Icardi presents the Citizen of the Year Award to Dorothy Hopkins, coordinator of the Alcorn Literacy Council.
On this day in history 150 years ago Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck completes a reorganization of his “Armies of the Mississippi,” nearly 120,000 men. At this time, it is the largest military force ever assembled in North America and it is poised to march on Corinth.