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3, 2010 | V
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MISSISSIPPIAN THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER
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THE UNIVERSITY
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MISSISSIPPI | SERVING OLE MISS
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OXFORD
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WWW.THEDMONLINE.COM
SUSPECT AT LARGE IN ROBBERY OF MECHANICS BANK
T O D AY
ICEE BRAIN FREEZE CONTEST Ole Miss Dining Services will sponsor an Icee Brain Freeze Contest in the Student Union Food Court. Participants will compete to drink Icees quickly without stopping for “brain freezes.” The contest begins at 1:30 p.m.
LASER TAG PURSUIT WITH ROCK BAND AND EA SPORTS The Student Programming Board will sponsor a laser tag game in the Student Union Plaza tonight from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m. EA Sports will also host a game of Rock Band on two giant screens.
BY TIM SUMMERS The Daily Mississippian
At 11:37 AM yesterday the Oxford Police Department received a report of an armed robbery at the Mechanics Bank on East University Avenue. At about the same time Hunter Ford was sipping on a smoothie on the porch of the Main Squeeze, the juice bar located just west of the bank to the rear of Pizza Hut. “I heard shouts from the woods to the right behind the bank,” Ford, a senior business management major from Laurel said soon after the sighting. “I saw a soaking wet kid running.” Ford said the suspect ran right in front of the Main Squeeze, in-between the building and the cars parked in front. Later on police would recover rain-soaked money stained with red-dye paint from the muddy area. “He was starting to pull off his mask, he ran around back and that’s when I saw the bank manager, standing behind the wall,” Ford said of a concrete block barrier between the Pizza Hut parking lot and the bank. “He was looking over the wall, and he saw me.” According to Ford, the suspect then ran to the back of the Main Squeeze, hopped in a vehicle and fled through an outlet on the south end of the parking lot. “I put my head around the corner and saw the car drive away,” Ford said. “I ran to the bank manager and told him what happened.” When the police arrived they recovered a black mask with eye holes from the back parking lot. OPD released a report later in the day through e-mail to the local media summarizing the event in a few sentences. “Bank officials reported to officers that a B/M wearing a ski mask came into the bank and robbed the bank at gun point,” the report stated. “Suspect then fled on foot behind the bank area and left in a vehicle.” “Officers found a gun, money, and other evidence that was covered in red paint from the ‘dye pack’ that discharged near where the suspect vehicle was parked.” “The suspect vehicle was described as being an older model vehicle light tan in color or light yellow. Possibly a GM or Ford product.” Two of the officers interviewing witnesses in the area said that a great deal of the money had been recovered soon after the robbery and that the search for the suspect would now involve canvassing the nearby area as well as contacts in the town. They were unsure as to whether the suspect was acting alone. This is the second bank robbery in Oxford in the last year. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Oxford Police Department at 662-232-2400. The police had made no arrests at press time.
homecoming week
T H U R S D AY
ROCK CLIMBING WALL The Mississippi National Guard and Ole Miss ROTC will sponsor a rock climbing wall from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. in the Student Union Plaza.
inside OPINION
THE CLASH AT HALFTIME
Christeen Shivers campaigns for her son, Richard Shivers, outside of the Stone Center where many Oxford residents came to vote. Shivers braved the rain all day to campaign for her son. A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S
Polls close in Miss. for Congress race JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Republican Alan Nunnelee unseated Democratic U.S. Rep. Travis Childers on Tuesday in north Mississippi’s 1st District, reclaiming a seat the GOP held for 13 years before Childers grabbed it in 2008. “I know what motivated you was not just a political campaign. It was your love of our country,” Nunnelee told cheering supporters at a victory party in his hometown of Tupelo. U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor of Bay St. Louis was struggling in south Mississippi’s 4th District, where he faced a strong challenge from Republican state lawmaker Steven Palazzo of Biloxi. Taylor — like Childers — is a fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrat who often votes against the party’s leadership. Two Mississippi congressmen were easily re-elected Tuesday. Democrat Bennie Thompson of Bolton won in the Delta-toJackson 2nd District, while Republican Gregg Harper of Pearl won in the central 3rd District. It’s rare for a Mississippi congressional incumbent to lose. Nunnelee told supporters he wants to repeal “Obamacare,” the massive health overhaul that became law earlier this year. “Tonight, we reclaim our country so that we can pass on to future generations the freedoms and the opportunity that
we have inherited from those who came before us,” Nunnelee said. Nunnelee is a 16-year state senator from Tupelo and chairs the powerful Appropriations Committee. In speeches and commercials, he relentlessly tied Childers to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. Childers, of Booneville, voted against Pelosi on issues such as the health overhaul. But he found himself caught in a wave of anti-Washington sentiment from voters leery of federal government expansion. North Mississippi’s 1st District is not easily identified by party labels. It voted for Republican John McCain in the 2008 presidential race. Seven independent or third-party candidates also ran in the 1st District, but split only a small portion of the vote. Barbara Cowley, 66, a retired insurance adjuster who lives in Smithville, said she voted for Nunnelee because she’s worried about the direction Democrats are taking the country. She worked with Nunnelee in an insurance office several years ago. Cowley is covered by Medicare and said she worries the federal health overhaul that became law earlier this year will put Medicare at financial risk. “This health care program, I think, is just going to ruin older
people,” Cowley said Tuesday. Barbara Lumpkin, 78, a former federal employee who lives in Southaven, said she voted for Childers. “He’s honest and he has integrity,” Lumpkin said. In a telephone interview from a victory party with about 2,000 supporters in his hometown of Bolton, Thompson said he’s grateful to voters. He also said he has accepted that Republicans will take over the House majority and he will lose his chairmanship of the House Homeland Security Committee. He’ll become the committee’s top member of the minority party. “I’ll be the ranking Democrat and will still have a part in setting policy to keeping Americans safe and making sure that natural disasters are responded to accordingly,” Thompson told The Associated Press. “For that, I will go back in January — I’m still chairman until the end of this session — and continue to work to work for the 2nd District.” Harper of Pearl defeated the same opponent as in 2008, Democrat Joel Gill of Pickens. The Reform Party’s Tracella Lou O’Hara Hill of Hattiesburg also ran this year. Harper could not immediately be reached. This was the information available at press time. For further updates, visit thedmonline. com.
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