RELIGION • B1
TOPIC • D1
OUR GIRLS – PART II
HERITAGE FEST
Annual celebration next weekend in Port Gibson
Church comes to Haitian orphans’ aid
SATURDAY, MARcH 20, 2010 • 50¢
SPORTS
Spring is here
By Danny Barrett Jr. dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com
MOvING ON Ole Miss advances past Memphis in NIT c1
WEATHER Today: Partly cloudy; high of 71 Tonight: Showers; low of 44 Mississippi River:
28.8 feet Rose: 1.7 foot Flood stage: 43 feet
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DEATHS • Herschel J. Watson Sr.
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TODAY IN HISTORY 1727: Physicist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton dies in London. 1815: Napoleon Bonaparte returns to Paris after escaping his exile on Elba, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule. 1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s influential novel about slavery, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” is first published in book form after being serialized. 1899: Martha M. Place of Brooklyn, N.Y., becomes the first woman to be executed in the electric chair as she is put to death at Sing Sing for the murder of her stepdaughter. 1969: John Lennon marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar. 1985: Libby Riddles of Teller, Alaska, becomes the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race. 1999: Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain become the first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop.
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ONLINE www.vicksburgpost.com VOLUME 127 NUMBER 79 4 SECTIONS
Armstrong to restart production at port plant
KATIE CARTER•The Vicksburg PosT
Today is the first day of spring, and the signs are everywhere. At her Vicklan Street home, Hannah Hendrix, 20, above right, takes in the sunshine with her “Nanny,” Nettie Russell, and fellow Mississippi State student Josh Walden, 22. Below, at left, the Bradford pear trees at
Bradford Ridge apartments on Cain Ridge Road are in full bloom, and, at right, a patch of daffodils blows in the breeze. Expect a chance of isolated thunderstorms today and a high in the mid-70s. Temperatures will drop into the 30s tonight.
Colby HopKIns•The Vicksburg PosT
KATIE CARTER•The Vicksburg PosT
Armstrong World Industries will restart veneer production at its Port of Vicksburg plant in late April, a spokesman at the company’s Lancaster, Pa.-based corporate office said Friday. The hardwood manufacturing plant had closed and cut 124 jobs in January 2009 as part of downsizing associated with the recession and the housing market collapse. The restart is expected to employ 77 people, said Beth A. Riley, vice president of investor relations, communication and diversity, in an e-mail response to inquiries about recent activity at the plant. “We are posting the available jobs through the state job service and Express Employment Professionals temporary agency,” Riley said, adding the Vicksburg operation will supply two engineered wood plants in Statesville, N.C., and Somerset, Ky. Shutdowns cut 600 jobs at the global producer of flooring products and ceiling systems’ plants in Vicksburg, Jackson, Texas, Missouri, Nebraska and Tennessee during 2009. The company had said when the Vicksburg closing was announced last year that it could be temporary, depending on market forces. Worldwide employment at the company dropped to 10,800 in 2009 from 12,200 in 2008 due to declines in sales volumes, according to the company’s annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At year’s end, Armstrong operated 36 manufacturing plants in nine countries, with 22 in See Plant, Page A7.
Cha-ching: Casinos President making final appeals post February gains DeCISION IN SIGHT
ahead of House health care vote By The Associated Press WASHINGTON — One by one, Democratic fence-sitters began choosing sides Friday, and the long, turbulent struggle over landmark health care legislation tilted unmistakably in President Barack Obama’s direction. In full campaign mode, his voice rising, the president all but claimed victory, declaring to a cheering audience in Virginia, “We are going to fix health care in America.” With the showdown vote set for Sunday in the House, Obama decided to make one final, personal appeal to rank-and-file Democrats, arranging a visit today to the Capitol. Republicans, unanimous in opposition to the bill, complained anew about its cost and reach. Under a complex — and controversial — procedure the Democrats have devised,
The associaTed Press
President Barack Obama speaks at an event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Friday. a single vote probably will be held to send one bill to Obama for his signature and to ship a second, fix-it measure to the Senate for final passage in the next several days. Democratic leaders and Obama focused last-minute lobbying efforts on two separate groups of Democrats, 37 who voted against an earlier
bill in the House and 40 who voted for it only after first making sure it would include strict abortion limits that now have been modified. Reps. John Boccieri of Ohio, and Allen Boyd and Suzanne Kosmas of Florida became the latest Democrats to announce support for the bill See Health care, Page A7.
By The Associated Press Mississippi’s state-licensed casinos showed post-recession life last month while posting a strong rebound in money won from players, the State Tax Commission reported Friday. Gamblers left behind $222.3 million in February, up 15 percent from $192.3 million in January. The state’s casinos also managed a 3.6 percent increase from the $216.5 million won in February 2009, the first such comparative gain since the economic meltdown in the fall of 2008. Casinos along the Mississippi River, including Tunica County, Vicksburg and Natchez, enjoyed a 24.9 percent jump in revenue from January to February, taking in $126.6 million last month. Casinos along the Mississippi coast, which have recently been facing more competition from Florida tribal casinos, posted a 5.9 percent
gain, winning $95.8 million. The boost for Mississippi exceeded that of neighboring Louisiana, where statelicensed casinos won 10 percent more in February than in January, but still were down 6 percent from February 2009. Allen Godfrey, deputy director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, said February has historically been a strong month for the casinos, perhaps in part because people are starting to get tax refunds. However, Godfrey noted that Louisiana and other casino states have recorded recent revenue gains that could indicate the business is shaking its downturn. “It’s a good development and we hope it continues,” he said. Tax revenue for February totaled $21.5 million, bringing the Mississippi’s fiscal year total to $182 million. At See Casinos, Page A7.