| Magee Courier-Simpson County News

Get ready to pay $90 a month for Amazon center

By Wyatt Emmerich, READ MORE > 869 Reads
On Wed, 06/04/2025 - 04:28 PM

Buying stuff on a credit card is so easy until you get the bill.
Everybody’s excited about Amazon’s new data center in Madison County. But we won’t be happy when we get the $1,089 annual bill. That’s $14,161 overall per Entergy customer over the life of the project.
The project was slated to be $10 billion but now it’s increased to $16 billion. That’s no surprise given that the Mississippi legislature and the Governor have given Amazon a blank check to buy electricity at low rates.

Salter: Bo Robinson, appointed to PSC after jarring corruption scandals, dies at age 90

By Sid Salter - Contributing Columnist, READ MORE > 260 Reads
On Wed, 06/04/2025 - 01:48 PM

Below is an opinion column by Sid Salter:

Columnist Sid Salter remembers Robinson, a distinguished veteran of county, state, and district politics in Mississippi, who passed away peacefully at his residence in Hamilton on May 26.

Salter: Bo Robinson, appointed to PSC after jarring corruption scandals, dies at age 90

By Sid Salter - Contributing Columnist, READ MORE > 260 Reads
On Wed, 06/04/2025 - 01:48 PM

Below is an opinion column by Sid Salter:

Columnist Sid Salter remembers Robinson, a distinguished veteran of county, state, and district politics in Mississippi, who passed away peacefully at his residence in Hamilton on May 26.

Divorce is hard on young children

READ MORE > 753 Reads
On Wed, 06/04/2025 - 01:14 PM

In previous generations, it was common for unhappily married couples to stay together “for the sake of their children.”
Later, that became less the norm, as attitudes shifted and couples concluded that not only were they unhappy but so were their children in a family where the heads of the household were in conflict. Some academic studies backed up this change in perspective.
A new, rigorous study, though, suggests that the earlier attitude was the correct one, at least if the objective is to give children the greatest chance of success as adults.

Divorce is hard on young children

READ MORE > 753 Reads
On Wed, 06/04/2025 - 01:14 PM

A view of the State Capitol from President Street in Jackson, Miss., on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

Pender: ‘That’s not governing’: Most lawmakers don’t know what they passed in secret, $7 billion budget

By Geoff Pender - Mississippi Today, READ MORE > 246 Reads
On Tue, 06/03/2025 - 02:38 PM

Below is a political opinion column by Geoff Pender:

The process has become more and more closed, secretive, or as one lawmaker put it recently, the “mushroom treatment” for most legislators — and certainly for the public.

Sometime within the last decade or so, setting the Mississippi state budget became a top-secret affair, closely guarded even against many of the lawmakers who are, ostensibly, tasked with setting it.

Pender: ‘That’s not governing’: Most lawmakers don’t know what they passed in secret, $7 billion budget

By Geoff Pender - Mississippi Today, READ MORE > 246 Reads
On Tue, 06/03/2025 - 02:38 PM

Below is a political opinion column by Geoff Pender:

The process has become more and more closed, secretive, or as one lawmaker put it recently, the “mushroom treatment” for most legislators — and certainly for the public.

Sometime within the last decade or so, setting the Mississippi state budget became a top-secret affair, closely guarded even against many of the lawmakers who are, ostensibly, tasked with setting it.

Corder: Municipal elections matter. Go vote!

By Frank Corder - Magnolia Tribune, READ MORE > 188 Reads
On Tue, 06/03/2025 - 12:02 PM

Below is a political opinion column by Frank Corder:

Mayors and city councils/boards of aldermen are where the government rubber meets the road, quite literally.

Tuesday, June 3, is Municipal General Election Day in Mississippi. If you live in a Mississippi city and are thinking of sitting this election out, don’t!

Municipal elections matter more than most realize.

Tired of driving over potholes?

Have your property taxes gone up?

Is your water trickling out of your showerhead?

Corder: Municipal elections matter. Go vote!

By Frank Corder - Magnolia Tribune, READ MORE > 188 Reads
On Tue, 06/03/2025 - 12:02 PM

Below is a political opinion column by Frank Corder:

Mayors and city councils/boards of aldermen are where the government rubber meets the road, quite literally.

Tuesday, June 3, is Municipal General Election Day in Mississippi. If you live in a Mississippi city and are thinking of sitting this election out, don’t!

Municipal elections matter more than most realize.

Tired of driving over potholes?

Have your property taxes gone up?

Is your water trickling out of your showerhead?

Ross: The American epidemic of loneliness

By Kimberly Ross - Magnolia Tribune, READ MORE > 173 Reads
On Tue, 06/03/2025 - 11:46 AM

Below is an opinion column by Kimberly Ross:

Fixing the trend seems next to impossible. But given how damaging it is to society as a whole, there must be at least some sort of collective effort in the same direction.

Ross: The American epidemic of loneliness

By Kimberly Ross - Magnolia Tribune, READ MORE > 173 Reads
On Tue, 06/03/2025 - 11:46 AM

Below is an opinion column by Kimberly Ross:

Fixing the trend seems next to impossible. But given how damaging it is to society as a whole, there must be at least some sort of collective effort in the same direction.

‘Genuine virgin acrylic’ and other lies

By Donna McLean, READ MORE > 889 Reads
On Tue, 06/03/2025 - 10:27 AM

Last week I was packing away a wooly shawl I had bought at a bargain price when I noticed its tag: “Made in Peru.” My pulse quickened. Wooly things made in Peru are often made of expensive alpaca wool! Maybe I had more of a bargain than I bargained for!
But on closer inspection, the label said, “Genuine Virgin Acrylic.” It was the same thing I’ve seen on the labels of other wooly garments that claim to be “faux wool.”

Friedeman: The Church is stronger with bi-vocational ministers

By Matt Friedeman - Magnolia Tribune, READ MORE > 218 Reads
On Mon, 06/02/2025 - 03:54 PM

Below is a religion column by Matt Friedeman:

The reach of the Church Universal would be hampered without these servants who work in their secular calling all week long and also carve time out every day and week to serve as pastors.

I just got back from meeting with a group of churches committed to bringing, in their words, “scriptural holiness to Eastern Kentucky.”

Ann Fisher-Wirth and the urgency of poetry in today’s world

By Richelle Putnam - Magnolia Tribune, READ MORE > 223 Reads
On Mon, 06/02/2025 - 03:50 PM

Fisher-Wirth hopes to launch several public projects, including an online series where Mississippians can read and reflect on their favorite poems.

Mississippi’s newly appointed Poet Laureate, Ann Fisher-Wirth, is recovering from a fractured hip. “Right now, the Poet Laureate thing feels like a nice dream,” she explains over the phone.

St. John: The door at the bottom

By Robert St. John, READ MORE > 202 Reads
On Mon, 06/02/2025 - 09:58 AM

Robert St. John reflects on this journey, writing that sobriety has given him things alcohol only promised.

On May 25, 1983, I was 21 years old—lost and heading nowhere fast. That night, I was fspeeding down 4th Street in my hometown of Hattiesburg, headlights off, 90 mph, foot on the gas. It was 2 a.m. Three police cars chased behind me, blue lights flashing. Reckless. Irresponsible. Dangerous. I don’t remember much else—except the DUI. I was due.

And it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Opinion: Plans to keep a GOP majority

READ MORE > 246 Reads
On Thu, 05/29/2025 - 07:04 PM

President Donald Trump is only four months into his four-year term, but he and his team have already laid out plans on how to keep a Republican majority in Congress in the 2026 midterm elections.
The Associated Press recently reported that the president has already raised $600 million, with an eye on getting to $1 billion. And the Axios website listed elements of Trump’s strategy to keep the GOP in control of the legislative branch.

Opinion: Plans to keep a GOP majority

READ MORE > 246 Reads
On Thu, 05/29/2025 - 07:04 PM

Jails only as good as people running them

READ MORE > 116 Reads
On Thu, 05/29/2025 - 04:08 PM

There’s nothing inherently wrong with that approach to the problem. Buildings wear out, especially those that take the kind of abuse that jails and prisons receive from those who are forced to live in them.

Plans to keep a GOP majority

READ MORE > 880 Reads
On Thu, 05/29/2025 - 04:06 PM

Jails only as good as people running them

READ MORE > 905 Reads
On Thu, 05/29/2025 - 11:14 AM

A common response to unsafe and overcrowded jails and prisons is to build new ones. Sometimes states and localities make that investment without prodding, but most often it’s because of pressure from the U.S. Justice Department and the federal courts.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that approach to the problem. Buildings wear out, especially those that take the kind of abuse that jails and prisons receive from those who are forced to live in them.

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