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Championship Night
people
Mississippi Coast reveling in hike in paying visitors By The Associated Press
changes at ‘american idol’ Fox, Seacrest mull future path of hit TV series
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Ever y day Si nCE 1883
This is one red tide the Mississippi Gulf Coast is happy to see. Local merchants say Alabama residents appear to be delighted to be hanging out on the sandy beaches of the coast instead of the narrow old streets of New Orleans’ French Quarter before the Crimson
WEATHER
Tide takes on the LSU Tigers for the BCS title tonight. Taryn Sammons, spokeswoman for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau, said ads went out to Alabama last month to persuade fans to stay on the coast at bowl time, and it’s paid off big time.
On B1 • LSU, Alabama set for rematch in BCS National Championship game at 7:30 tonight, on ESPN • Alabama kicker Foster shakes off miserable game against Tigers, eager for redemption
See Coast, Page A7.
2nd man dies after wreck on way to game in N.O. By Holbrook Mohr The Associated Press JACKSON — A second man has died from injuries sustained in the southern Mississippi wreck of a motorhome carrying a group of friends from Georgia to New Orleans to attend the college football national championship game, authorities said Sunday. Forrest County Coroner Butch
See Wreck, Page A7.
VPD called to home 100 times since 1996
MONDAY MORNING FOG
Tonight: partly cloudy with a chance of showers; lows in the 50s Tuesday: mostly cloudy with showers; highs in the 60s
Benedict said Sunday that 66-year-old Alfred Holt Jr. of Lithonia, Ga., the driver of the vehicle, died Sunday. On Saturday evening, 47-year-old Darryl Parker of Riverdale, Ga., died in the wreck. Benedict said Parker’s wife was among at least 10 people injured in the crash. Authorities said the group was traveling in the recre-
Mississippi River:
34.2 feet Fell: 0.3 foot Flood stage: 43 feet
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Boy, 4, shot, injured in weekend drive-by
DEATHS
By Mary Margaret Halford mhalford@vicksburgpost.com
• Earlene Pennington Jackson • Willie Smith • Harris Wise
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TODAY IN HISTORY 1861: Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union, the same day the Star of the West, a merchant vessel bringing reinforcements and supplies to Federal troops at Fort Sumter, S.C., retreats because of artillery fire. 1972: Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, Howard says a purHughes ported autobiography of him by Clifford Irving was a fake. 2002: A U.S. military tanker plane crashes in western Pakistan, killing all seven Marines on board.
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www.vicksburgpost.com VOLUME 130 NUMBER 9 2 SECTIONS
Brenden Neville•The Vicksburg Post
Fog shrouds City Front at about 8 this morning, making the Grand Station Casino barely visible from nearby. The fog that blanketed the city from daylight until mid-morning was a precursor to today’s rain, which was forecast by
the National Weather Service to have a 90 percent chance of continuing tonight and Tuesday. The chance for rain on Wednesday was predicted to be smaller, with the sun expected to shine through again on Thursday.
Since 1996, Vicksburg police have been called at least 100 times to the home where a 4-year-old boy was shot late Friday in a hail of bullets in a drive-by shooting. “It’s been a very active residence,” Chief Walter Armstrong said this mornArkeevian ing, a day Warfield after the 4-year-old, Arkeevian Warfield, was released from University Medical Center in See Shooting, Page A7.
With days left in office, Winans hangs up road manager hat Barbour pardons killer OUT WITH THE BOYS
By Danny Barrett Jr. dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com
By The Associated Press
Richard Winans’ days at the county barn are over. It’ll suit his wife, Helen, and two grandsons just fine. “He’s better than a woman with the cooking and the cleaning,” she said. “And the kids would be absolutely lost without Richard.” Winans, 62, retired at year’s end after 22 years in the Warren County Road Department, the past seven as road manager. His work crew of 70 is now a play crew — grandsons Jacob Lee Winans, 7, and Justin Landon Winans, 6. “It was just time to retire and take care of the grandkids,” he said. “I had a good run.” Assistant road manager Eugene Deyamport heads up the department while the job is advertised internally and then publicly. “Richard’s a dedicated, very good man to be in charge,” District 5 Supervisor Richard
JACKSON — Mississippi Democrats and a victim’s relatives have criticized outgoing Republican Gov. Haley Barbour for pardoning or offering early release to a convicted murderer on Barbour’s final weekend in office. Barbour David pardoned Gatlin 40-year-old David Gatlin. He was to be released Sunday. Online state records show he was sentenced to life in prison for murder, aggravated assault and burglary convictions. Records show Gatlin served as a trusty inmate at the Governor’s Mansion. Gatlin turned himself in to authorities in 1993 and admitted killing his estranged wife, Tammy Ellis Gatlin, and wounding
Brenden Neville•The Vicksburg Post
Former Warren County Road manager Richard Winans walks his grandsons Justin Landon, left, 6, and Jacob Lee, 7. George said. Maintaining road conditions in Warren County listed and rated annually was tough in the past six years, and only will get more expensive to do in an age of fairly high energy and materials prices, he said. “Take your pick off that list and it needs work,” he said.
“They’d have to do a bond issue for about $20 million to take them up to county standard,” Winans said. Sections of 11 roads were resurfaced this year and financed by the county road fund, expected to be buoyed in 2011-12 by about $2.1 milSee Winans, Page A7.
Randy Walker The victim’s sister, Tiffany Ellis Brewer, said that Gatlin “spent less time in jail than my little sister got to live.” “I don’t know if Governor Barbour has kids but if one of his kids were murdered, I would like to think that he would want them to be put in prison until they died or the appropriate time,” she said. House Democratic Caucus Leader Bobby Moak said in a statement Sunday evening that the governor’s action was “the latest in a long line of irresponsible decisions by a party that claims to stand for law and order.” “I know that people will say that lame duck pardons are a political tradition but this is one tradition that needs to go away,” Moak said. “The people of Mississippi and their justice system deserve better. See Pardon, Page A7.