Best wishes to all,

Josh Mitchell

Publisher/Editor

The Marion County Informer

Marion County School District Administrative Office

By Josh Mitchell/Informer Publisher

Those who want to run for seats on the Marion County School Board can now qualify for the Nov. 2 election.

Sept. 3 is the last day to qualify for the election which will be for seats in Districts 1 and 2. There will be a special election for District 3 to fill two remaining years of an unexpired term.

Anyone who wants to run for one of the seats must have a petition signed by 50 registered voters in the respective district. Candidates must reside in the district they are running for.

The petitions are available at the Marion County Circuit Clerk’s Office. The terms in District 1 and 2 are for six years, and School Board members are paid $200 a month.

The District 1 seat is currently held by Jackie Broom; District 2 Keith Stuckey; and 3 Samantha Armstrong. Broom, Stuckey and Armstrong were not immediately available for comment to determine if they will they seek re-election.

As of this morning, no one had qualified to run for any of the School District seats.

U.S. Sen. R-Miss., Thad Cochran

The U.S. Senate on Thursday in a 63-37 vote confirmed Elena Kagan as a new associate justice to the Supreme Court. Prior to the vote, Mississippi Republican Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker released statements saying they would oppose the confirmation. Wicker’s statement was printed in the Marion County Informer July 26 and can be read by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/d5g5XW. Cochran’s statement released Aug. 4 is printed below:

In a speech to the Senate, Cochran outlined the reasons he would vote against confirming Kagan, the U.S. solicitor general who was nominated by President Obama to replace retired Justice John Paul Stevens. The following is the text of Cochran’s remarks:

Mr. President, as the Senate considers the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to be an associate justice on the United States Supreme Court, I want to thank Senators Leahy and Sessions for their work in the Judiciary Committee on this nomination. The hearings were informative and respectful, and they produced a hearing record that gives all Senators a better understanding of the nominee’s background.

She graduated with academic honors from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. She clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, served as a White House policy advisor for the Clinton Administration, and as Dean of Harvard Law School.

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan

Last year, on March 19, she was confirmed by the Senate as U.S. solicitor general. She has not had much experience as a practicing lawyer, and she has had no experience as a judge. Her lack of legal and judicial experience is not a disqualification, but it does make our job of evaluating this nominee a bit different.

We should ask ourselves whether Elena Kagan will perform the duties of a Supreme Court justice with the requisite fairness, restraint, and respect for settled precedent under the laws and constitution of the United States. After reviewing the record and her testimony, I believe serious questions about her respect for precedent have not been answered.

General Kagan has a history of political advocacy, and she has not shown that she appreciates the critical distinction between political advocacy and neutral judicial decision-making. As an example, General Kagan’s prior work suggests that she would not protect an individual’s constitutional right to bear arms.

As a policy advisor to President Clinton, Kagan promoted several gun control proposals, including background checks for all gun purchases in the secondary market, a gun tracing initiative, and giving law enforcement the ability to retain background check information from lawful gun sales.

She also drafted executive orders to restrict the importation of semiautomatic rifles and to require all federal law enforcement officers to install locks on their weapons. More recently – as solicitor general, Ms. Kagan refused to submit a brief to the Supreme Court in support of the petitioner in the McDonald v. Chicago case. In June of this year, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the McDonald petitioner, holding that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is binding on the states.

Notably, McDonald was a 5-to-4 decision. It is the second Supreme Court decision in recent years to affirm the right to bear arms by a narrow, 5-to-4 majority. When asked whether she agrees with the four dissenting Justices in these two cases, General Kagan repeatedly declined to answer the question. I am concerned that General Kagan is not committed to observing binding precedent in the area of Second Amendment rights.

If she is confirmed to the Supreme Court, she could overturn the closely-decided holdings of these recent cases. General Kagan’s record on military recruiting at Harvard Law School also is troubling to me. As Dean of Harvard Law School, she disallowed military recruiting on campus during a time of war. Her actions were in violation of federal law that requires schools accepting federal funds to allow military recruiters access to campus.

As justification for her actions, she referred to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as a “moral injustice of the first order,” and she reaffirmed those views during her confirmation hearings. When she openly defied federal law, she emailed the Harvard Law community to say she “hoped” the federal government “would choose not to enforce” the law. The Supreme Court later ruled unanimously that Harvard was, in fact, in violation of federal law.

What is even more troubling is that Kagan was not candid about this incident during her recent confirmation hearings. When asked about the issue, she claimed that Harvard Law School was “never out of compliance with the law.” She also said that the military had “equally effective substitute” methods for recruiting students from Harvard and had “full and good access” to students during this time.

Her assertions are belied by several contemporaneous documents from military recruiters, showing that they encountered severe impediments to recruiting Harvard students. Internal Pentagon documents indicate that under Dean Kagan, “[t]he Army was stonewalled at Harvard.” The chief of recruiting for the Air Force’s Judge Advocate General Corps wrote that “Harvard is playing games.”

And an Air Force recruiter wrote to Pentagon officials stating that, “[w]ithout the support of the Career Services Office [at Harvard], we are relegated to wandering the halls in hopes that someone will stop and talk to us.”

I believe that the nominee’s discriminatory treatment of military recruiters was both contrary to law and a disservice to the military during a time that America was at war. Her recent testimony that she acted within the law and that the military had equal access to students is less than candid and is directly contradicted by a unanimous Supreme Court ruling.

It is the responsibility of the Senate to make certain that those who are confirmed to the Supreme Court are not only qualified by reason of experience and training, but also are fully committed to upholding the rule of law. I cannot support Ms. Kagan’s nomination to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, based on the facts I’ve just described. Ms. Kagan has a history of openly defying established federal law and of being hostile to certain individual rights guaranteed by our constitution.

Her recent hearing testimony did not show that she is prepared to relinquish the role of political advocate and to take seriously the oath to “faithfully and impartially” uphold the constitution and the laws of the United States. For these reasons, I cannot support her nomination.

Christi Mitchell will kickoff the Open Mic Night with a performance of her one-woman show "The Optimistic Adventures of Urnine Geraldine."

By Josh Mitchell/Informer Publisher

If you want to showcase your talent or simply sit back and enjoy the antics of local residents, attend Open Mic Night at Second Street Bean coffee shop in Columbia this Friday from 6:30-9 p.m.

Two performers are already lined up for the evening; Christi Mitchell of Columbia will act out her humorous and inspiring one-woman show the “Optimistic Adventures of Urnine Geraldine” and Eric Toomer will play songs on acoustic guitar.

Mitchell, who will kick off the Open Mic Night, has written and performed several one-woman shows and pursued an acting career in Los Angeles. She has acted in about 50 plays, taught theatre classes and earned her master’s degree in theatre from Wayne State University in Detroit. She is married to Marion County Informer Publisher Josh Mitchell.

The plot of the “Optimistic Adventures of Urnine Geraldine” deals with an awkward outcast attending a makeup party where she shocks the refined women with her unusual behavior. Mitchell describes Urnine as “an underdog with a heart of gold.”  In the show, Mitchell goes back and forth between playing Urnine and the president of Dazzle Dish Makeup Products.

Second Street Bean

Second Street Bean owner Paris Schepemaker said she plans on having open mic nights the first Friday of every month to give local residents an outlet to express their talents. Anyone who wants to perform is invited to do so this Friday or during any of the other open mic nights.

Performances can include theatrical displays, poetry readings, musical sets and anything else people may way want show off.

Schepemaker said if the open mic nights become a big success she will start doing them every Friday. “A lot of people in Columbia have asked me about doing an open mic night,” said Schepemaker. “I’m really excited and hope we have a good turnout. I hope people enjoy it and use it as an outlet to show off their talent.”

Second Street Bean is located at 321 Second St. in Columbia and can be reached at 444-9299. Your Voice, a radio show on Saturday mornings at 9 on WCJU 104.9, is also sponsoring the Open Mic Night.

Fran Ginn

This weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go. I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives. Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

Do you have a moment in your life which is preserved in your memory like an insect in amber?  Can you remember everything about that moment…..what you were feeling, what the surroundings looked like, even what you were wearing?  Does it still seem fresh, more like yesterday that forty years ago?

I can recall in detail where I was and the taste of the most delicious peach I ever ate. I was thirteen years old, on a “Chevy Chase Family Vacation”-type trip with my family.  The date was June 10, 1967, the last day of the Arab-Israeli Six Day War.  We were in Johnson City, TX, on a  road leading to the LBJ Ranch.  There was a make-shift wooden fruit stand on the side of the road.  The fruit stand had an old cigar box (Roi-tan, I think) which served as a cash box.  There was a sign which gave the price of the peaches  ( .50 per basket) and instructed buyers to pay on the honor system. We passed by the fruit stand, but  my mother, who loved peaches, was insistent that we turn around and go back to the stand.  My daddy, whose temper was beginning to fray after 10 days on the road, reluctantly turned the car around in the middle of the road and drove back.  Mama and I got out.  My daddy and brothers were less than not interested in peaches.  The day was hot, with a light breeze,  the fields behind the fruit stand were full of wildflowers and the air was heavy with the scent of fresh peaches.  The sign offered one peach per customer as a free sample.  Mama carefully evaluated at least a dozen individual peaches before choosing one.  The peaches were small, not much larger than a plum.  The exterior was a deep pinky orange color, shading to almost burgundy toward the bottom of the fruit.  She rubbed off the velvet fuzz from the peach and took a bite.  My mother’s eyes flew open wide.  She had an expression of absolute bliss on her face.   When she handed the peach to me to taste, I understood.  The flesh of the peach had a consistency more reminiscent of a firm custard than a fruit.  The juice was wonderfully sweet and tasted of flowers.  Mama looked at me as she wiped the juice from her face and said, “This is what the peaches in heaven will taste like”.   We got my daddy’s pocket knife and cut open another peach.  The flesh was ivory,  shading to a deep magenta at the seed.  Neither Mama or I had ever seen a white peach before.  We were amazed by this new fruit – tiny, delectable and so sweet.  We bought 3 baskets.  To the end of her life, Mama always talked about those LBJ peaches.  We never found another peach quite so delicious. 

In the present day, thanks to the immediacy and plethora of information on the Internet, I found that white peaches have a lower acidity level than their orange colored cousins.  They are more delicate and don’t travel as well.  I also learned that the white peach is the more favored variety in the Far East, with the orange fleshed more acidic peach more popular in Europe.  The Chinese consider the peach a symbol of longevity.  Mention of the fruit has been documented in Chinese writings as early as the 10^th century BC.

Isn’t it wonderful what our brains retain?  As I have eaten peach after peach this summer – and it has been a good year for peaches – I’ve traveled back to that day in Texas in 1967 many times.  Memory does tend to intensify parts of an experience, but I truly believe that first peach that day was the best I had ever or would ever taste.  It really was heavenly.

Some of the FEMA trailers stored on the land on Highway 43 South in Marion County.

By Josh Mitchell/Informer Publisher

The federal government has paid two Mississippi companies a total of $804,645 for use of land on Highway 43 South in Marion County to store FEMA trailers, according to the General Services Administration.

A company called 23467 Mississippi LLC of Hattiesburg was paid $480,645 by FEMA for use of the approximately 300 acres of land located at 1817 Highway 43 South, Columbia. The company leased the land to FEMA from April 9, 2007 to April 9, 2009.

The land then went under the ownership of Marion Clay & Gravel LLC, which has leased the property to FEMA since April 10, 2009, according to the GSA. To date, FEMA has paid Marion Clay & Gravel LLC $324,000 to store the trailers at the site.

In total, FEMA has paid $804,645 since it started leasing the land, according to the GSA.

It is unclear who owns Marion Clay & Gravel LLC. The Columbia phonebook lists a business address for Marion Clay and Gravel at 1917 Highway 43, Columbia, but a message left at the number was not returned. Likewise, it is unclear who owns 23467 Mississippi LLC.

The Mississippi Secretary of State Office does not require that the owners of LLCs be listed. According to the Secretary of State Web site, Marion Clay & Gravel LLC was created Feb. 23, 2009 and is currently listed in “good standing.”

The Mississippi Secretary of State Web site states that 23467 Mississippi LLC was created Aug. 21, 2006 and is also currently in “good standing.”

Over 9,000 trailers were stored at the Marion County site, but all of the units were purchased by Lubbock, Texas businessman Lance Inderman for $9.1 million in February. Inderman could not be reached for comment to determine what he plans on doing with the trailers.

The trailers were used as temporary housing after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita five years ago. A few months ago, a GSA spokesman told the Informer that the trailers had to be removed from the Marion County site by September.

The government issued over 100,000 FEMA trailers after the hurricanes, and many of the units had significant levels of formaldehyde. As a result of the formaldehyde issue, Inderman had to sign a waiver stating that the trailers he purchased would not be used for housing. Formaldehyde was used to make the wood products in the trailers and is a carcinogen.

Chloe Oliver

Chloe Oliver of Foxworth writes a community column for the Marion County Informer.

By Chloe Oliver

Those who have known me for only a few years find it difficult to believe that I was once shy. However, if you have known me since my youth, you would know that I  was what people refer to as painfully shy. When I overcame this handicap, I seemed to do it with gusto. I now find myself at the opposite end of the spectrum. In fact, my daughter frequently tells me that I have no filter. Maybe in another twenty years I can obtain a happy medium.

As a child in school, I had two teachers that made life miserable. While some teachers deplore rowdy behavior, these two seemed to abhor shy students. They called attention to my shyness at every opportunity.  “What’s the matter with you, cat got your tongue?” was a typical question often directed toward me in front of my classmates. Of course, this is what every shy person yearns for-someone to call attention to them on a daily basis.

It  also became obvious that these two teachers had labeled me as dumb because of my shyness. Even though  I will probably never work for NASA, neither am I a candidate for a “Rain Man” movie. What if I did have a learning problem?  Would the behavior of these two teachers  have been professional or helpful if I had a learning disability?  Fortunately, I had supportive parents and a couple of good teachers to counteract these two.

Too often, children are labeled by educators as dumb, worthless, not able to amount to much, or not college material because of learning disabilities, shyness, or behavior problems. What happens if these children don’t encounter good teachers or have supportive parents?

I think of flowers as beautiful blossoms. Some weeds have blossoms. Originally, all flowers were wildflowers or weeds. Garden flowers are simply cultivated wildflowers. There are still thousands of uncultivated flowering plants growing in the wild. Since they are not yet cultivated, some would consider them weeds. Yet, with proper cultivation and environment, you might someday purchase these “weeds” from a plant nursery. Each species grows best in a particular type of environment such as sun, shade, wet, dry, cool or warm. A flowering cactus won’t thrive in a water bog and the Artic Poppy would not adapt to the Florida heat.

Many children are labeled as weeds. However, like the flowers, they only need the right environment and proper cultivation for some to realize that they too are flowers. For example, a child with dyslexia is not dumb. He merely learns differently than others. He is just an Artic Poppy in the Southern heat.

I know that there are many capable teachers and parents. I also know that there are those parents and teachers who destroy instead of build. As the school year begins, I hope that parents and teachers will think before they label a child as dumb or tell a student that he is not college material.You see, the only difference between a weed and a flower, is a judgment.