Peoples Bank’s earnings up by 66 percent

BILOXI — Second quarter earnings of Peoples Financial Corporation increased 66 percent over the first quarter of 2010, primarily due to sales of securities, announced Chevis C. Swetman, chairman and CEO of the holding company and its subsidiary, The Peoples Bank. Net income for the quarter ended June 30, totaled $1.446 million, compared to $872,000 for [...]

• Metropolitan Bank raises $10.8M in new capital
• BancorpSouth donates land to Habitat for Humanity
• Renasant buys distressed Georgia bank
• Cadence sees losses, but not as deep

Navistar cutting 340 workers in West Point

WEST POINT — Officials say Navistar plans to cut approximately 340 employees from its West Point plant by next week. Navistar spokeswoman Elissa Koc told The Commercial Dispatch yesterday that the majority of the 500-employee staff would be released as an order for 1,050 MaxxPro Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, vehicles nears completion in the [...]

• BAE wins destroyer contract from Navy
• BP has paid $256M to businesses for oil spill
• Group working to reestablish railroad service
• GranthamPoole named Intuit Solution Provider

Sophia’s still awaiting ruling on zoning issue

JACKSON — Jackson officials are still working on a way to keep a popular restaurant open nearly a year after the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled the city violated zoning laws by allowing it in a residential area. The City Council in late July voted to approve new zoning rules designed to benefit Sophia’s, the restaurant inside [...]

• Barbour looking to sue Choctaws over casino
• New bridge, new opportunities 
• Study: Drilling stoppage to cost state $8.4M 
• Should I-69 go through Greenville? 

Foreclosures down in Jackson, up on the Coast

ACROSS MISSISSIPPI — Fewer foreclosure notices are going out in Jackson — but more homeowners in Gulfport-Biloxi are getting into mortgage trouble. RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosures nationwide, reports 527 foreclosure notices in Jackson during the first half of 2010, affecting one in every 423 homes. That’s down 39 percent from the first half of 2009 and [...]

• Cochran supports FEMA’s work on flood maps
• BancorpSouth donates land to Habitat for Humanity
• Jackson Medical Mall gets into housing business 
• GI Associates signs Flowood lease

State misses out on federal education grant

Mississippi is not in the running for a share of $3 billion in federal education reform grants. The “Race to the Top” competition rewards ambitious reforms aimed at improving struggling schools and closing the achievement gap. The finalists named in the second round of the competition are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, [...]

• Alcorn adds degrees on Natchez campus
• Foundation awards funds to graduate programs
• Superintendent accuses Franks of extortion
• Mannings give $1M to Ole Miss

Cochran co-sponsors bill backing rural practices

WASHINGTON — Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) has affirmed his support for legislation to encourage more veterinarians to practice in rural areas by exempting a loan repayment program from federal taxes. Cochran is co-sponsoring the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program Enhancement Act (S.3621), bipartisan legislation that would give tax-exempt status to the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program [...]

• Study: Imported fish pose public health hazard
• Fitch rates health system’s bonds ‘AA’
• Board of Health shorthanded due to Senate inaction
• First West Nile virus of season found in sample