SCHOOL & YOUTH • B1
TOPIC • C1
GETTiNG ACQUAiNTED
All THAT JAZZ
Students meet memories of Rosa A. Temple
Alcorn plans annual fest
WE DN E SDAY, April 7, 2010 • 50¢
SpOrTS
Arledge appeals sentence
CLEANING UP
Up AND COMiNG
By Danny Barrett Jr. dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com
Underclassmen in a flash D1
WEATHEr Tonight: Showers and thunderstorms; low near 52 Thursday: Mostly cloudy; high near 68 Mississippi River:
40.6 feet Rose: 0.1 foot Flood stage: 43 feet
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DEATHS • Christopher Keith Boyd • Shellie Moore Jones
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TODAY iN HiSTOrY 1860: Will Keith Kellogg, founder of cereal maker Kellogg Co., is born in Battle Creek, Mich. 1862: Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant defeat the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. 1927: The image and voice of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover are transmitted live from Washington to New York in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television. 1949: The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” opens on Broadway. 1969: The Supreme Court, in Stanley v. Georgia, unanimously strikes down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material. 1978: President Jimmy Carter announces he is deferring development of the neutron bomb, a high-radiation weapon.
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ONliNE www.vicksburgpost.com VOLUME 128 NUMBER 97 4 SECTIONS
merediTh spencer•The Vicksburg PosT
Donald Johnson of Waters Truck and Tractor installs one of the new diesel oxidation catalysts on a bus.
Older school buses getting enviro-friendly gadgets By Danny Barrett Jr. dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com Public school students in Vicksburg and Warren County might be breathing a bit easier due to green technology installed this week on the oldest buses in the Vicksburg Warren School District’s fleet. Diesel Oxidation Catalysts, or DOCs, are replacing traditional catalytic converters on eligible buses statewide built between 1998 and 2006, including 35 here. The newer converters contain a porous, honeycomb-like structure that is
coated with a material that triggers a chemical reaction to reduce pollution. No maintenance is needed for DOCs and they don’t affect the fuel economy of the buses, according to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, which bought and paid for installation with money from the federal stimulus act and grants from the Environmental Protection Agency. Emissions of particulate matter should be cut 40 percent and hydrocarbons cut 70 percent as a See Buses, Page A7.
A pile of the old catalytic converters See Arledge, Page A7.
Baby black bear found in county Cub was only a few inches long when found
Isle cites few changes as it buys out Rainbow By Steve Sanoski ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com
By Tish Butts tbutts@vicksburgpost.com The first Louisiana black bear cub known to have been born in Warren County has been spotted on Davis Island in the Mississippi River. “Prior to this cub, the last cub was tagged in Delta National Forest in March of 2008,” said Brad Young, Black Bear Program leader for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. The federal preserve is north of Warren County. Davis Island, all private property, is south of Vicksburg and on the Louisiana side of the river, but remains part of Mississippi. The infant male weighed about 2 pounds when Young discovered it during a routine changing of the 5-yearold mother’s tracker collar last month, Young said. The department tries to change the collars every two years as well as check for new cubs, he said.
In a new appeal, former Vicksburg attorney Robert Arledge has asked his prison sentence on mail and wire fraud charges tied to tort claims involving the diet drug Fen-Phen be either ended or shortened. In lengthy documents filed in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Arledge explains a series of actions he says show the defense attorneys he hired were, in essence, working against his interests, denying him his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights during his criminal trial. Robert The case is before Arledge U.S. District Judge David Bramlette, who sentenced Arledge in October 2007 to 6 1/2 years in prison. The conviction was affirmed by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans and in April 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the sentence. Arledge, 52, represents himself in the appeal, which he may do although he lost his license to practice law after the conviction. In the 57-page motion and an accompanying chronology, Arledge claims his lead attorney, Karl Koch, was preoccupied with personal issues stemming from his wife’s 2006 arrest in Baton Rouge on drug charges. Delays in the trial’s sentencing phase the summer of 2007 were attributed to the death of Marcie Koch in Tucson,
Isle of Capri Casinos has no immediate plans to make changes at Rainbow Casino, said a spokeswoman, but a name change and rebranding effort might take place after its purchase is completed this summer. Bally Technologies announced Monday it will sell its only casino to Isle of Capri for about $80 million.
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The black bear cub is near its mother’s hind legs. “We’ve checked five females this year, and she was the only one that had a cub. This was her first,” said Young. “He was the only cub that we’ve documented. He wasn’t more than a few inches long.” Young said the cub will remain with his mother for the next 16 to 18 months
before venturing out and will be collared when he weighs about 100 pounds. “There’s a chance, since he’s a single cub, his growth rate might be faster,” Young said. The state has documented five cubs in Mississippi in the See Bear, Page A7.
The deal requires Mississippi Gaming Commission approval, but officials said they anticipate the deal to close by July 30. “In the meantime, it’s business as usual,” said Jill Haynes, Isle of Capri senor director of corporate communications. Isle of Capri executives were in Vicksburg Tuesday touring Rainbow and meeting with employees See Rainbow, Page A7.
Morgan Keegan, 2 employees face charges over mortgages By Danny Barrett Jr. dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com Investment banker Morgan Keegan & Company and two of its employees have been charged with fraud related to subprime mortgages sold in a number of states, including Mis-
sissippi, officials said this morning. Values of securities backed by subprime mortgages, those sold below the prime lending rate, were fraudulently overstated by the Memphis-based comSee Fraud, Page A7.