Katrina Funds Used For Pavilion in Ocean Springs

Many people in the United States sent funds to help the victims of hurricane Katrina. I wonder if they think $250,000 for a pavilion is a wise use of the funds they sent Ocean Springs.

I wonder why the money couldn't have been spent to provide city water for a woman living inside the city limits. Wouldn't this be more in line with the humanitarian goals expressed by many of the people who sent funds.

"I thought it would be to fulfill the immediate needs of the community, that it was directly for hurricane relief," she said. "I thought that decision would be made locally."

And the people who sent funds are not the only ones disappointed by Ocean Springs decision to use Katrina Funds for a pavilion.

Ocean Springs resident Nancy Morin alleged the donated money had been misappropriated. "Yeah, it makes the beach look nice, but do we need that, or do we need people back in their homes?" Morin said. "They're spending (the money) to make our city more beautiful, not more livable."

Read more about it in the MS Press.

She Pays City Taxes But She Doesn't Have City Water

The Board of Aldermen voted 6-1 late Tuesday not to extend service to Boudreaux and her neighbors on Ocean Springs Road, who were annexed by the city 10 years ago.

If they don't want to provide services to them, maybe they should unannex them, and give them a tax break. After all they having been paying taxes for 10 years for services they don't have.

Boudreaux, called her situation "a disgrace." "They got to beautify Ocean Springs with Fort Maurepas and the bridge, but they don't care about people who need a drink of water," she said. "It's ridiculous."

Family Fears City May Take Park

The Shepard family donated 450 acres in the Gautier city limits to the state decades ago with the stipulation that it be a nature park belonging to the state.

Now the family fears the state is somehow trying to transfer it to city control.

Barbour Wants to Tax Hospitals Instead of Smokers

Mississippi has one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the United States. When our legislature tried to raise the tax on cigarettes Governor Barbour said "NO". Now to cover a Medicaid shortfall Governor Barbour wants to TAX HOSPITALS. That's right Big Tobacco that sells carcinogens to Americans mustn't be taxed. Smokers whose second hand smoke kills innocent bystanders mustn't be taxed. But according to Governor Barbour it's perfectly Ok to tax hospitals.

89 Year Old Man Injured 27 People With His Car!

Why isn't the Sun Herald calling for more restrictions against senior citizens driving, after all older drivers have higher rates of fatal crashes than all but the youngest drivers, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "Fragility" starts as early as age 60, the institute's report on 2004 fatalities says. By 75, older drivers are "markedly overinvolved in crashes."

I for one am tired of the Sun Herald's bias reporting against teen drivers. If a teen had been involved their age would have been blaring in the headlines, instead the article about the 89 year old man injuring 27 pedestrians bore the innocuous headline Car strikes Conn. festival crowd; 27 hurt

Your Home IS Your Castle

The new law allows homeowners to shoot intruders in their yard. As Sid Salter points out in the Meridian Star, if you stay out of the wrong castle you don't have anything to worry about.

Who Should Get The Grant Money?

The Homeowner grant checks are being mailed out. But some groups object to the homeowners getting the money to replace their homes.

They say by giving the money directly to homeowners instead of going through mortgage companies, recipients will be more susceptible to con artists and scammers and the arrangement will mean many hard-hit neighborhoods won't be rebuilt.

Barbour has said one reason for giving the money directly to homeowners is it would allow them to relocate to higher ground, if they so choose. He has said the grants would still be subject to mortgage and other liens, similar to insurance payments

Teen Should Be Deported

While I feel sorry for this teen, and realize it's not her fault she is in the US illegally, I don't think it is fair that she may take scholarships away from real Americans who need them and are in the US legally.

She should be sent back to Mexico, along with the rest of her family who are here illegally. These people are criminals, what part of illegal don't they understand?

Jack Martin, special projects director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, says amnesty programs, such as The Dream Act, harm the United States.“Any amnesty program simply encourages illegal immigration,” he said. The result, he said, is a society that approves the flouting of its own laws and pays to have its own schools and hospitals burdened with people who have no right to be in the country.

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Your Taxes are Being Spent on the Medical Care of Illegal Aliens

To learn more about how illegal immigrants are getting free medical care, paid for with you tax money, read the full article in the Sun Herald.