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21 ‘pardoned’ inmates to stay in jail for now Sisters released last year will ask Bryant for pardon
By Emily Wagster Pettus The Associated Press
golden globes It must mean the Oscars are coming
b4 WEATHER Tonight: clear, lows in the mid-20s Saturday: mostly sunny, highs in the 60s Mississippi River:
30.6 feet Fell: 1.2 foot Flood stage: 43 feet
JACKSON — Twenty-one inmates who received pardons or other reprieves from former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour remain in custody until a court battle is Haley resolved over Barbour whether Barbour properly handled their orders to go free. According to Mississippi Department of Corrections records obtained by The Associated Press: • Three of the 21 were convicted of murder. Two of those received full pardons, and one received a medical release. • One was convicted of
By Holbrook Mohr The Associated Press
The associated press
See Pardons, Page A8.
Sisters Jamie Scott, left, and Gladys Scott
JACKSON — Two sisters released from a Mississippi prison last year on condition that one donate a kidney to the other were saddened and disappointed they weren’t among dozens receiving full pardons from the governor, one of the women said Thursday. As one of his last acts as governor, Haley Barbour granted more than 200 reprieves, including to those convicted of murder. Most were full pardons, though some received suspended sentences. Jamie and Gladys Scott had served nearly 16 years
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www.vicksburgpost.com VOLUME 130 NUMBER 13 2 SECTIONS
See Sisters, Page A8.
House panel hires aide for speaker: $110K year By Jeff Amy The Associated Press
TODAY IN HISTORY
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of their life sentences for armed robbery when they were released on Jan. 7, 2011. Barbour freed Jamie Scott because she suffers from kidney failure, but he agreed to let Gladys go on the condition she follow through on her offer to donate a kidney to her sister within one year. Barbour noted at the time that Jamie Scott’s dialysis was costing Mississippi about $200,000 a year. Gladys Scott said Thursday that she “just started crying” when she found out they didn’t get a full pardon. Scott said she is in nursing school, but won’t be able to become a nurse unless her record is
Eli Baylis•The Vicksburg Post
Deidra Furr, left, and Daphyne McCool walk in the Vicksburg National Military Park on Thursday evening. The National Weather Service forecast for today called
for sunny skies with a high of 49 degrees and a low around 25 degrees.
4,000 workers to be off and on in Entergy upgrade By Pamela Hitchins phitchins@vicksburgpost.com Four thousand temporary workers will cycle in and out of Vicksburg and Warren and Claiborne counties in the next six to eight months, as Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Station completes a scheduled refueling and an upgrade that will make it the most powerful plant in the country, a local civic group was told Thursday. Darron Case, Entergy Mississippi’s manager for resource planning, told the Vicksburg Rotary Club that the upgrade, which will increase Grand Gulf’s power output by about 178 megawatts or 13 percent, is under way at the nuclear plant about 30 miles south of Vicksburg in Claiborne County. “It will be the same facility, with the
‘This will be the single largest upgrade ever completed and will make Grand Gulf again the single largest power producer in the U.S.’ Darron Case
Entergy resource planning manager same personnel working there, but will produce increased electricity,” Case said. “This will be the single largest upgrade ever completed and will make Grand Gulf again the single largest power producer in the U.S.” Case said the improvements will primarily increase its “steam handling” capability, not its nuclear components. About 700 full-time employees, many of whom live in Vicksburg, normally
staff Grand Gulf. The refueling outage and power upgrade will require about 4,000 specialists working temporarily at various times, said Case. The estimate is nearly double what had previously been predicted to fill travel trailer parks, hotels, motels and short-term rentals in the area and increase receipts at local shops, restaurants and other retail outlets. Grand Gulf’s last refueling outage early in 2010 — bringing about 1,000 temporary workers — was credited for a nearly 15 percent increase in Vicksburg hotel and bed and breakfast occupancy rates over the same period in the previous year. The 2012 refueling shutdown is scheduled for mid-February. Refueling outages normally last See Entergy, Page A7.
JACKSON — The Mississippi House of Representatives will pay $110,000 a year to Nathan Wells, a former campaign worker and state Republican Party employee, to act as an assistant to new House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton. “I would use him basically as a chief of staff,” said Gunn, who hasn’t settled on a title for Wells. The Nathan House Wells Management Committee voted unanimously Thursday to hire Wells, a 30-yearold Brandon resident who has assisted Gunn and others in their campaigns. Gunn said he needs someone to act as a liaison for him. Gunn noted that the lieutenant governor, who leads the Senate, has a large staff. “Our speaker needs someone like that in his office, and probably others,” said Rep. Ray Rogers, R-Pearl. Former Speaker Billy McCoy, a Rienzi Democrat, who repeatedly voiced pride in the frugal operation of the House, had only a secretary officially assigned to him. Gunn said the new position is needed to lessen his workload and reduce the political duties of the House clerk, now Andrew Ketchings. Gunn said the previous House Clerk, Don Richardson, advised McCoy on policy and helped assign bills. He said those duties had political overtones he wants Ketchings to avoid. “Mr. Ketchings needs to See House, Page A7.