Magnolia Marketplace

The Roth Hill Casino in Natchez is already technically under construction, with piles being driven into the ground.
I’ve covered the ins and outs of this oft-delayed project for over a year now. The last time I spoke with the CEO of Premier Gaming, whose company is managing the project, he seemed pretty confident that the casino [...]

Opponents of Diamondhead incorporation are down to their last strike.
The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Oct. 27 that efforts to incorporate the retirement village in Hancock County could proceed. Objectors had appealed to the high Court after a ruling in Hancock County Chancery Court went against them.
At issue is objectors’ assertion that they did not receive [...]

Mississippi politics lost one of its more colorful personalities Wednesday when former Gov. Bill Waller Sr. died.
I only had two encounters with Waller, but they were pleasantly memorable. Here they are:
In 2005, while I was at the Yazoo Herald newspaper in Yazoo City, I covered a murder trial in which Waller represented the defendant. Waller’s client, [...]

In early 2008, developers of a planned casino on Natchez’s Roth Hill appeared before the Mississippi Gaming Commission and got site approval for the project.
Almost four years and a few delays later, Premier Gaming Group received from the MGC at its October meeting permission to begin construction, said Allen Godfrey, the Commission’s executive director.
Receiving permission [...]

This past Saturday morning started as well as any day could.
It was deer season’s first day that allowed the use of guns. I watched the sunrise in a treestand. I was happy.
And then I got a text message at 8:30, from an Ole Miss buddy, one of those types who always seems willing to pass [...]

Trial set to begin on Dec. 5
Another layer of the beef plant collapse will be peeled back starting Dec. 5 in Hinds County Circuit Court.
The state of Mississippi, its now-defunct Land, Water and Timber Board and the Mississippi Development Authority are suing Facility Construction Management Inc. in effort to recoup some or all of the [...]

BLUE SPRINGS  — At the “line-off” ceremony Thursday at the massive Toyota facility in Blue Springs, everybody — and I mean everybody – who spoke offered the same reason we were there in the first place: Northeast Mississippi’s workforce is spectacularly skilled.
It’s hard to argue with that. This region was the furniture manufacturing capitol of the state [...]

Mississippi Supreme Court Presiding Justice George Carlson announced Monday morning that he will retire after he completes his term, which runs through January 2013. I’ve gotten to know Justice Carlson pretty well the past few years (his daughter is married to the guy who was the best man in my wedding. Other than that Chandler [...]

We might have finally found something Mississippians of every political persuasion can agree on: The use of eminent domain for private economic development is a bad idea.
With 97 percent of precincts reporting late last Wednesday afternoon, Initiative 31, which will amend the state Constitution to essentially restrict the use of eminent domain to projects of [...]

Those who have taken up arms for the United States have given and preserved precious freedoms. One of those is the freedom of speech.
So let’s compare how two of Mississippi’s most recognizable elected officials chose to exercise that freedom when they discussed right before Tuesday’s elections their views on the Personhood amendment, or Initiative 26.
On [...]