Business Blog

College Board officials say William “Bill” LaForge is their nominee to be president at Delta State University. » See related MBJ links for Bill LaForge LaForge is currently a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. A native of Cleveland and graduate of Delta State, his father was a professor of history there. LaForge will meet with campus [...]

Magic Slim, a younger contemporary of blues greats Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf who helped shape the sound of Chicago’s electric blues, died Thursday. He was 75. He died shortly after midnight Thursday at a Philadelphia, Pa., hospital, said his manager, Marty Salzman, the Huffington Post news blog reports.The musician had health problems that worsened [...]

By: Matthew D. Bolian Since 2011, a fight has been brewing in the state capitol over where the Department of Revenue (DOR) and its 500 plus workers are going to relocate. In one corner is Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, and in the other is Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, R-Clinton. Sen. Blount represents those [...]

Visitors to America’s national parks will encounter fewer rangers, find locked restrooms and visitors centers, and see trashcans emptied less often if 5 percent across-the-board cuts are enacted by sequestration. A National Park Service internal memo obtained by The Associated Press compiles a list of cuts in services in parks from Cape Cod to Yosemite. [...]

Dr. Gene Wiggins, a professor emeritus in The University of Southern Mississippi School of Mass Communication and Journalism, died Thursday, Feb. 21 at his home in Hattiesburg. He was 69. Funeral and memorial arrangements for Dr. Wiggins will be announced later. Dr. Wiggins joined the Southern Miss faculty in 1973. He earned his bachelor’s and [...]

While individual motorists are feeling the pain at the pump from near daily increases in the per gallon price of gasoline, the rising prices are likely to stunt the already meager growth in Mississippi’s overall economy, a state senior economist says. Combined with the Jan. 1 return of a 2 percent portion of the payroll [...]

The numbers are starting to come in on the cost of the $86 billion federal budget sequester that kicks in March 1. For starters, Mississippi stands to lose $50.4 million in civilian defense payroll this year. That loss is to come from the planned furloughs of 800,000 Department of Defense civilians workers as part of [...]

The number of governors refusing to accept the federal offer of hundreds of millions of dollars for expanding Medicaid to their state’s working poor is dwindling, with Florida Gov. Rick Scott Wednesday joining Ohio’s Gov. John Kasich and Michigan’s Rick Snyder in accepting the offer. More than two dozen governors continue to hold out against [...]

After making few adjustments, the Mississippi Gaming Commission gave unanimous approval Thursday to a change in application regulations, intended to make future state casinos more attractive to visitors. “The environment has changed,” John Hairston, chairman of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, said at Thursday’s monthly meeting. “And we’re responding to that change.” Continued growth of gambling [...]

The law offices of John Arthur Eaves filed a lawsuit today in Galveston, Texas, on behalf of a Texas woman who traveled aboard the Carnival Triumph. In a released statement, Eaves says, “Texans who watched Carnival’s million-dollar ad campaign in Texas and bought their tickets in Texas and who boarded the ship in Texas deserve [...]