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hood wants help
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AG offers cash to find pardoned convict
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Morning wreck kills I-20 pedestrian By Pamela Hitchins phitchins@vicksburgpost.com
Gator chomp
Ole Miss falls by 4 points to No. 14 Florida
B1 WEATHER Tonight: mostly clear, lows in the 30s Saturday: mostly clear, highs in the mid-50s Mississippi River:
27.2 feet Rose: 1.3 foot Flood stage: 43 feet
A9
DEATHS • Willie Tucker Anderson • Ronald Chambers • Linda Sue Barrentine McGraw • Nancy B. Walker
A9
TODAY IN HISTORY 1756: Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Salzburg, Austria. 1945: Soviet troops liberate the Nazi concentration camps Wolfgang Auschwitz Amadeus Mozart and Birkenau. 1967: Astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee die in a fire aboard an Apollo spacecraft. 1984: Singer Michael Jackson suffers burns to his scalp when pyrotechnics set his hair on fire during the filming of a Pepsi-Cola TV commercial.
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www.vicksburgpost.com VOLUME 130 NUMBER 27 2 SECTIONS
Brenden Neville•The Vicksburg Post
Warren County deputies and other emergency personnel gather evidence this morning at the scene of an accident on Interstate 20 West in which a pedestrian was killed.
A pedestrian was killed this morning on Interstate 20 when he was struck by a pickup near the truck scales west of the Bovina exit, authorities said. Joseph H. Poindexter, 79, 211 Son Watts Road, Newton, Miss., died from head and chest injuries, said Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey. His body was expected to be sent to the Mississippi Crime Lab in Jackson for an autopsy, Huskey said. Poindexter is believed to have been walking to get help for his car which had broken down, said Huskey, who pronounced him dead at 7:24. Cpl. Odis Easterling, spokesman for the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol, said a vehicle was found about three-fourths of a mile
from the wreck. The victim was westbound on the highway, Easterling said, when he was hit by a white Ford Ranger. The initial 911 call came in at 6:53 a.m. Easterling declined to release the name of the driver, a 56-year-old man. No charges had been filed against him this morning, said Easterling. Huskey said initial reports were that the driver believed he had hit a deer. He stopped, discovered Poindexter and called 911. Huskey said Poindexter is survived by his wife, Helen, and a daughter, Alma. Mapps Funeral Home in Forest was to handle funeral arrangements. The fatal wreck was the first reported in the county outside the city in 2012. One has been reported in Vicksburg.
Former WC principal denied reinstatement Rodney Smith claims lies, retaliation By Pamela Hitchins phitchins@vicksburgpost.com Despite claims of retaliation and lies, Rodney Smith was denied his request Thursday night for reinstatement as principal of Warren Central High School. In a closed session following a three-hour meeting of the Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees, members voted 4-0, with one abstention, for Smith to continue in his reclassified position as “administrator on assignment.” Smith, who was suspended from his post Nov. 10 and in December moved to the district office, addressed the board in open session during its monthly business meeting. He was prevented from identifying specific individuals, but said he was the target of retaliation and lies after he filed a complaint against a district employee. A written statement released by Smith identified the employee as the “Assis-
Brenden Neville•The Vicksburg Post
Former Warren Central High School Principal Rodney Smith, right, addresses Vicksburg Warren School District board members, including Jim Stirgus Jr., left, Thursday. tant Superintendent.” Two individuals hold that title in the VWSD — Paula Johnson, assistant superintendent
for curriculum and instruction; and Debra Hullum, assistant superintendent for operations.
“On Oct. 23,...I wrote a letter to the superintendent in order to follow board policy governing grievances
and mainly to provide written documentation showing See VWSD, Page A10.
VCVB kicks in $10,000 Potential for more flood danger seen for city’s 25th Riverfest ‘Each damaged location NEW JEOPARDY FOR AFFECTED AREAS
From staff and AP reports
Damage from last year’s record spring floods could leave many people along the Mississippi River in even more danger this year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday. The Corps said it’s assessing the damage to levees, structures and navigation channels and will begin notifying affected communities in February. The announcement comes as work on sections of mainline levees at Buck Chute and Lake Albemarle north of Vicksburg inch toward completion.
has been characterized by its likelihood of failure and potential consequences if there is a failure.’ Scott Whitney
Division flood risk manager
“We want to identify every place where we have problem areas,” Corps spokesman Bob Anderson said. “Once we have those identified, we get to those as quickly as we can before the
next big flood. Hopefully, it doesn’t come this year. “If it does come this year, that’s when those communities in the areas of greater risk would need to be notified,” he said. Congress gave the Corps $802 million in December to fix levees up and down the river. Identifying the weakest points and letting people know where they are is part of that, said Anderson, a spokesman for the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division, based in Vicksburg.
See Flood, Page A9.
By John Surratt jsurratt@vicksburgpost.com The 25th Riverfest received a $10,000 boost Thursday from the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau. The VCVB Board of Directors approved support for the annual spring festival after hearing a presentation from Riverfest board president Katrina Shirley. The money, which will be evenly split in advertising and cash, is double the VCVB’s support from last year. It will be paid from the
VCVB’s $25,000 local event sponsorship fund. “We’re pleased that the VCVB is going to help sponsor the entertainment, and we’re looking forward to putting on an extensive festival for Vicksburg,” Shirley said after the meeting. In July, she had asked the board for $25,000 and repeated that request Thursday, outlining some of the musical acts signed up for the two-day street festival set for downtown Vicksburg on April 20 and 21. See VCVB, Page A9.