by MBJ Staff Published: December 20,2012
Tags: agency, bond, cooperative, credit, credit ratinmg, debt, debt rating, electric, electricity, elevtricity, enegy, energy, federal, government, power, utility
NORTH MISSISSIPPI — Fitch Ratings has assigned an “AAA” rating to the $1-billion 2012 series B Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) global power bonds. The bonds were priced Dec. 18, 2012. Proceeds from the 2012 series B bonds will be primarily used to refinance outstanding debt. In addition Fitch awarded a parity global power bond rating [...] [...]
by Associated Press Published: December 20,2012
Tags: agency, boat, boater, boating, drought, dry, engineer, engineering, federal, government, level, maritime, navigation, port, river, rock pinnacle, ship, shipper, shipping, traffic, transportation, water, Weather
MISSISSIPPI RIVER — Crews scooping out Mississippi River bedrock in southern Illinois are making steady progress but have removed just a fraction of the rock pinnacles that are impeding navigation along a stretch of the drought-plagued waterway, an Army Corps of Engineers official said. Excavating machinery had chiseled away 39 cubic yards of rock by [...] [...]
by Associated Press Published: December 18,2012
Tags: agency, cleanup, damage, deadline, debris, destruction, disaster recovery, federal, flood, flooding, fund, funding, government, grant, hail, hurricane, natural disaster, rain, state, storm, tropical, wind
VICKSBURG — Warren County and Vicksburg want to decide before the end of 2012 on how to spend a remaining $1.75 million in Hurricane Katrina recovery money. The Vicksburg Post reports the money runs out in 2013. The county got $3.8 million in 2008 to clean drainage ditches inside Vicksburg. Warren County was among 49 [...] [...]
by Associated Press Published: December 17,2012
Tags: agency, barge, boat, boater, boating, Commerce, drought, dry, engineer, engineering, federal, goods, government, lake, level, navigation, port, river, ship, shipper, shipping, traffic, transportation, water
MISSISSIPPI RIVER — Amid strong concerns about the declining level of the already low Mississippi River, the Army Corps of Engineers is releasing water from an Illinois lake to add to the flow of the Mississippi. Last Saturday, Corps of Engineers officials began releasing water at Carlyle Lake in southern Illinois, saying the additional water [...] [...]
by Associated Press Published: December 17,2012
Tags: agency, audit, auditor, bid, bidding, competitive bid, contract, department, federal, government, marine resources, state
BILOXI — A preliminary audit by federal authorities says the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources may have skirted laws requiring competitive bidding in awarding more than $600,000 in contracts and an additional $116,000 to a consultant. The Sun Herald reports the U.S. Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General’s preliminary audit questions DMR’s dealings with Barber [...] [...]
by Associated Press Published: December 14,2012
Tags: barge, bill, boat, boater, boating, dam, drought, dry, engineer, engineering, executive, federal, government, law, lawmaker, legislation, legislative, level, navigation, port, reservoir, river, shiop, shipper, shipping, state, towboat, transportation, travel, water
MISSISSIPPI RIVER — Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear is urging U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to sponsor legislation that would force the Army Corps of Engineers to release water from dams on the Missouri River to raise the water level on the Mississippi River, where drought conditions could soon halt barge traffic. Beshear, a Democrat, [...] [...]
by Associated Press Published: December 14,2012
Tags: agency, air travel, airline, airport, aviation, computer, federal, flight, government, online, tourism, tourist, trannsportation, travel, vacation, visitor, website
AROUND MISSISSIPPI — Silver Airways flights to three Mississippi cities now appear on Delta Air Lines’ website, and programmers are working to include flights to Greenville. Steve Bennett, a spokesman for Silver Airways Corp. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said the changes were made by Thursday. Silver began flying from Atlanta to Greenville, Hattiesburg, Meridian and [...] [...]
by MBJ Staff Published: December 14,2012
Tags: aerospace, agency, appropriation, association, budget, cut, defense, employment, federal, funding, government, job, space exploration, Weather, work, worker
HANCOCK COUNTY — As negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff heat up, little attention has been paid to the impact that mandatory budget cuts would have on the nation’s civil space program and our ability to accurately forecast dangerous storms, according to a release from the Aerospace Industries Association. A new economic impact analysis concludes [...] [...]
by MBJ Staff Published: December 11,2012
Tags: apiary, bee, beekeeper, bug, farm, farmer, farming, federal, government, hive, honey, honeybee, insect, mite, pesticide, state
JACKSON — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved two emergency exemptions to help Mississippi beekeepers control damaging varroa mite infestations in honeybee colonies. The products are HopGuard, manufactured by BetaTec Hop Products, and Apivar, manufactured by Veto-Pharma S.A. HopGuard cardboard strips treated with potassium salt of hop beta acids may be inserted in honeybee [...] [...]
by Associated Press Published: December 10,2012
Tags: authority, board of directors, cooperative, electricity, energy, executive, federal, generation, management, meeting, power, transmission, utility
NORTH MISSISSIPPI — The Tennessee Valley Authority is expected to have a special meeting today to discuss delegating authority to the utility’s new chief executive until it fills several vacancies on its board. The board is made up of nine members and five seats are pending congressional action, including one that’s up for reappointment. Congress [...] [...]