Archive for the ‘Mississippi’ Category

Municipal elections in Mississippi

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

Municipal elections in Mississippi take place every four years on the first Tuesday in June. Things have been interesting here in Oxford. Our well-liked, two-term mayor, Richard Howorth, didn’t run for another term, and most of the aldermen had stiff competition. Pat Patterson ended up winning the mayor’s race in a landslide, but all but one of the contested alderman races were decided by 25 votes or less. Affidavit ballots that will be counted in the morning could change the outcome of two of the races. Get more info at the Oxford Eagle.

It was a record day for me personally. I voted for two Democrats and a Republican. While I don’t identify as a Republican, I do tend to agree with them more than the Democrats. I’m to the right of the Republicans on most economic issues, so voting for Democrats is typically out of the question. On the other hand, parties mean less in local elections, especially here in Mississippi were a lot of your older, hardcore conservative voters self-identify as Democrats and won’t vote for Republicans, period. Also, I’ve found that programs I could never stomach on a national level aren’t so bad on a local level.

Back in my hometown of Belmont, my younger brother ran for alderman. In Belmont (population ~2,000), all the alderman are at-large, and they all run as independents by tradition, so there is no primary. Brandon received the second highest number of votes out of the eight that were running. Most of his opponents were twice his age or better. Congratulations, Brandon!

My dad has been an alderman in Belmont for 21 years, but didn’t run for re-election this time. The other aldermen held a reception to honor him and the retiring mayor a few weeks ago. I’ve got some pictures to post when I get a chance.

Wicker pays for Musgrove endorsement ad

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

Tonight when I got home I had a message on my answering machine. It was from Barack Obama, urging me to vote for Ronnie Musgrove, the Democratic candidate for US Senator. Sort of.

My first thought was “Why is Musgrove doing this? This is political suicide.” Mississippi is a very red state when it comes to national elections. Democrats still rule the local elections (strange, I know), but we haven’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Carter. The only way Musgrove had a shot at winning was to avoid being connected with the Obama and Pelosi crowd. Why would he approve this phone call?

Turns out, he didn’t. The call was actually a Wicker ad. Wicker is Musgrove’s former roommate and Republican opponent. The audio at the beginning of the call was from a radio ad that Musgrove was using somewhere in the state. My guess would be the Delta. I think it’s the only majority Democrat area in the state.

It’s strange that a candidate’s own ad can be used against them.

Hurricane Gustav

Monday, September 1st, 2008

Hurricane Gustav came ashore southwest of New Orleans this morning. So far, parts of Louisiana and Mississippi are seeing a little flooding, but nothing too bad yet. The storm is tracking into western Louisiana and eastern Texas.

Yesterday I got a call from a fellow amateur radio guy here in Oxford. The St. Helena Parrish Emergency Operations Center in Greensburg, LA was looking for some hams to deploy down there for the storm and its aftermath. Unfortunately I had to decline because of Liam. It would have been fun.

Mississippi to get a medical examiner

Friday, August 8th, 2008

Mississippi has been without a state medical examiner for nearly fourteen years. County coroners have been contracting with numerous private pathologists, but primarily Dr. Steven Hayne. Lately some of his work has come under scrutiny. Public Safety Commissioner Steve Simpson announced that Hayne has been taken off the list of pathologists that can be used by county coroners and that the state will finally be hiring a medical examiner. Hayne is not eligible to apply for the job because he isn’t board certified in the correct area. He once took the test to become board certified, but failed.

Hayne was performing 1,500 autopsies per year, which is slightly over four a day, assuming he worked weekends and holidays, or nearly 6 a day assuming he took weekends off, but no holidays. This is in addition to testifying in court on a regular basis. The National Association of Medical Examiners recommends no more than 250 per year, which means Hayne was doing the work of 6 doctors.

I found a very interesting article in Reason that chronicles Hayne’s career and the system that let him keep doing what he was doing. It’s on the long side, but well worth reading. Hayne once testified that he could tell from a bullet wound that two people simultaneously pulled the trigger. In another case, organs that Hayne claimed to have weighed during an autopsy turned out to still be in the corpse. In yet another case he changed the cause of death so he could be paid to testify in a lawsuit.

Hayne claims that he’s been caught up in a “witch hunt,” but after reading the Reason article, I’m convinced. It’s amazing that it took this long for something to be done.