1/27/17
Lots of spirited debate in this session of lawmaking:
- ‘Save our art!’… is the battle cry of citizens opposing the Senate bill that would abolish the Mississippi Arts Commission. Many view it as an insult to our state’s rich musical tradition as the ‘Home of the Blues’. The bill would place the arts under the direction of the Mississippi Developmental Authority.
- ‘Blue, red & med’. It’s the latest incarnation of ‘lives matter’ legislation, and would enhance penalties for those harming police, firefighters and emergency medical responders. The “Blue, Red and Med Lives Matter Act”, passed the state Senate yesterday and now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.
- House bill 877 would eliminate the state’s elected transportation commissioners and replace them with appointed commissioners in a move favored by house insurance chairman, Gary Chisolm.
- Talk about a cool new gadget…the Mississippi State Fire Academy is getting one of the most technologically advanced Fire Apparatus Driving Simulators in existence. And FEMA is paying for it, via a 399 thousand dollar grant. It will train firefighters in dozens of potential fire scenarios, and enable them to confidently handle the same.
- Because of a typically female hairstyle, Jackson Police thought at first they were looking for a woman, but have arrested 29-year-old Walter Randle for the murder of a man whose body was found earlier this month near the JSU campus. Marquez Shaffer had suffered a fatal gunshot wound, and Randle is now in custody.
- Today is National Chocolate Cake Day. The earliest roots of this tasty indulgence can be traced to a Philadelphia cookbook from 1847. Betty Crocker made it a whole lot easier, a century later, with Crocker’s box version appearing on shelves in 1947. Pint-sized pastry chefs were free to explore their chocolate cake aspirations in 1963 with the introduction of the ‘Easy Bake Oven’.
