Business Blog

WASHINGTON — The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent last month, dropping below 8 percent for the first time in nearly four years. The rate declined because more people found work, a trend that could have an impact on undecided voters in the final month before the presidential election. The Labor Department said Friday [...]

JACKSON — Sanderson Farms Inc. has sued a union, claiming its union representatives filed meritless complaints with federal agencies and made slanderous statements to news organizations. The Mississippi-based poultry producer filed the lawsuit Aug. 28 in Jones County Circuit Court against the Laborers International Union of North America Local 693 and the Southeast Laborers’ District [...]

JACKSON — A federal judge on Wednesday decided to continue to block a state law that threatened to shut down Mississippi’s only abortion clinic and make it nearly impossible for a woman to get the procedure in the state. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III temporarily blocked the law July 1 and extended that [...]

TUNICA — The Tunica Arena and Expo Center is hosting a large-scale horse show for three years, starting in 2013. The facility’s manager, Rebecca Fyfe, says the Palomino Horse Breeders of America World Show will last two weeks each summer through 2015, giving a boost to the local economy. The World Championship Horse Show is [...]

By DAVID BRANDT, The Associated Press   College basketball has long been dominated by African-Americans on the court. The same can’t be said for the sidelines. And the numbers of minority coaches aren’t getting much better — they’re stagnant or even declining at the Division I level. George Mason coach Paul Hewitt — who also [...]

MOORHEAD — Mississippi Delta Community College’s president is stepping down May 31 after 11 years of leading the two-year school. Larry Bailey announced his retirement in an email to employees Monday. He said retirement will allow him to spend more time with his family and to pursue other goals. Bailey has spent 19 years at [...]

Tom Neyhart, president of Green Grants LLC, a New Orleans solar installation firm, said it’s too early to tell what impact a recent U.S. Commerce Department decision to levy import fees on solar panels made in China will have on his business. But he can’t help but feel uneasy about the decision. Green Grants works [...]

Museum plays April Fools’ joke on prolific forger CINCINNATI — Fool me once, the saying goes. But 50 times? That’s what a convincing art forger did for nearly three decades when he donated his copies of Picassos and other works of art to unsuspecting museums in 20 states Mark A. Landis, who has dressed as [...]

BILOXI — CBS and WLOX-TV in Biloxi, Miss., have signed an affiliation agreement. WLOX-CBS will be on a digital sub-channel of WLOX and will be viewed over the air, on cable and satellite, CBS said in a statement Wednesday. The affiliation is effective April 8. David Vincent, vice president and general manager of WLOX, says [...]

WASHINGTON — Rep. Bobby Rush donned a hoodie during a speech on the House floor Wednesday deploring the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, receiving a reprimand for violating rules on wearing hats in the House chamber. The Illinois Democrat spoke out against racial profiling and, as he removed his suit coat and pulled the [...]