We’re here

 We arrived at the hotel about 4:30 p.m. Tupelo time.

Two buses filled with folks ready to learn more about Toyota. We stopped in Nashville at Ryans for lunch. Our buses are known as “red” and “blue.” (I’m not doing an Ole Miss or State joke right here, but have heard plenty).

Marriott is a pretty resort with golf attached. I saw Dick Hill drooling as he looked across the way.

Nice trip. More later.

On the road

I love Willie Nelson. I also love travel.

Just about four hours of a nap, then off to catch a bus to go to Georgetown, Ky., and see the Toyota plant up there. I’ll blog as often as possible during stops along the way and faithfully while we’re there taking tours of the community and the plant. We’ll be asking questions of the Toyota folks and the community residents to see how all this works out.

There’s still time to submit a question by comment or e-mail me at leesha.faulkner@djournal.com. No question is ever too out in left field; I promise.

Here’s the list of folks going:

Georgetown/Lexington, KY Delegation
June 30-July 2, 2007

Mary Connor Adcock
McCullough Steel

Mike Armour
MS Appalachian Regional Commission

Debbie Arnold
Edward Jones Investments

Wayne Averett*
Community Development Foundation

Terry Baker
Community Bank, North MS

Ben Beavers
Land Bank of North MS

Ronnie Bell
Lee County Administrator

Bill Benson*
Lee County Chancery Clerk

Rusty Berryhill
Kevin Charles Furniture

Dawn Best*
Tennessee Valley Authority

Peggy Bishop
Magnolia Wholesale Florist

Gina Black
Community Development Foundation

Jay Blissard
Three Rivers Planning & Development District

Sandra Boland
City of Blue Springs/Council

Lisa Bradley
Prudential Magnolia Realty Associates, Inc.

Jay Bryan
ArchitectureSouth

Mike Bryan
Tupelo City Council

Milton Campbell
Union County Development Association Board

Gary Carnathan*
Carnathan & Malski Attorneys

V. M. Cleveland
Tupelo Furniture Market

Scott Cochran
Renasant Bank

Dawn Crawford
Three Rivers Planning & Development District

Jennie Bradford Curlee*
Community Development Foundation

Nettie Davis
Tupelo City Council

Travis Davis
Newell Paper Company

Glenn Duckworth
Union County Development Association

Charles Duke*
Lee County Board of Supervisors

Nollen Elzie, Sr.
Minister

Brenda Estes
CRYE-LEIKE

Tommy Estes*
Tombigbee Electric Power Board

Pat Falkner
City of Tupelo

Leesha Faulkner
NE MS Daily Journal

Jim Fitzgerald*
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company

Juanita Floyd
CREATE Foundation

David Forbes
Temple of Compassion & Deliverance Church

Jill Foster
Three Rivers Planning & Development District

Joe Geddie
North MS Industrial Development Assn.

Floristene Gladney
Tender Care Learning Center

Sue Golmon
Coldwell Banker Tommy Morgan Realty

Robert Hall
Community Development Foundation

Bill Hannah
Journal Enterprises, Inc.

Jennie Hannah
CREATE Foundation

Judy Harrison
Mayor, Town of Blue Springs

Smith Heavner
Tupelo City Council

Zandra Hereford
Community Development Foundation

Dick Hill
Tupelo City Council

Steve Holland*
Tombigbee Electric Power Board

Wade Holland
Three Rivers Planning & Development District

Sam Hooper
Itawamba County Development Council

Shane Hooper
Success Learning

Danny Horton
Mayor, City of Baldwyn

Billy Howard
Howard Industries

Greg Hudspeth
Prudential Magnolia Realty Associates, Inc.

James Huffman
Baptist Memorial Hospital/Union County

Leslie Hutchins
Key Staff Source

Tommie Lee Ivy*
Lee County Board of Supervisors

Terry Jarzen*
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company

Jennifer Johnson
United Way of Northeast MS

Terry Johnson
Union County Administrator

Michael Jones
JBHM Architects, P.A.

Ernie Joyner
BancorpSouth

David Kelso*
Tombigbee Electric Power Board

Ellen Kennedy*
Community Development Foundation

Matthew Kimbrough
Land Bank of North MS

Jeff King
Community Bank, North MS

Carol Kloac
Prudential Magnolia Realty Associates, Inc.

Jim Kloac
Land Bank of North MS

Andrew Koeing
Kevin Charles Furniture

Deste Lee*
NE MS Daily Journal

Ben Logan
Mayor, Town of Sherman

Bill Long*
Tombigbee Electric Power Board

Shari Long
Hilton Garden Inn

Zell Long
City of Tupelo

Bill Martin
Tupelo City Council

Carolyn Mauldin
Tupelo City Council

Betsy Maxey
Tupelo WIN Job Center

Randy McCoy
Tupelo Public School District

Hughes Milam
Urology Professional Associates

Guy Mitchell
Mitchell McNutt & Sams

Mark Monts
Monts Paper Company

Phil Morgan*
Lee County Board of Supervisors

Bobby Neeley*
Tombigbee Electric Power Board

Ed Neelly
Mayor, City of Tupelo

Cecil Overton
T & L Specialty

Tim Overton
T & L Specialty/Mathnasium

John Oxford
Renasant Bank

Buddy Palmer*
Tombigbee Electric Power Board

Jan Pannell
Tupelo Downtown Main St. Assn.

John Pannell
Auto Brokers

Sandra Perkins
MS Appalachian Regional Commission

Brock Reynolds
Newell Paper Company

David Riley*
Tombigbee Electric Power Board

Tom Robinson
Robinson & Associates, Inc.

Rud Robison, Jr.
Pryor & Morrow Architects

Ron Roof*
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company

Chris Root
JBHM Architects

David Rumbarger
Community Development Foundation

Felix Rutledge, Sr.
Rutledge Contractors

Dennis Seid*
NE MS Daily Journal

Clay Short
TRI Inc. – Commercial Real Estate

Ellen Short
J Guyton Group Realty

Barbara Smith
Community Development Foundation

Bobby Smith*
Lee County Board of Supervisors

Jerry Stubblefield
JESCO, Inc.

Buddy Stubbs
Busylad Rent-All

David Sykes
Access Environmental Solutions, Inc.

Sean Thompson
Lee County Asst. Comptroller

Helen Wade*
Community Development Foundation

Brent Waldrop
BancorpSouth

Mitch Waycaster
Renasant Bank

Mary Werner
Tupelo Manufacturing Company, Inc.

Clyde Whitaker
Whitaker Realty

Albert White
BancorpSouth

Tollie White
Nail McKinney Professional Associates

Bill Williams
Mayor, City of Saltillo

Bruce Williams*
Tombigbee Electric Power Board

James Williams
Williams Transfer & Storage

Mike Williams
Williams Transfer & Storage

Terri Williams
ArchitectureSouth

Russ Wilson
Tupelo Planning Committee

What about stem cells from unfertilized eggs?

This is a really interesting question asked by Wired. Scientist in Maryland have been using unfertilized eggs for stem cell research. What’s the answer? You tell me.

More on beef processing

OK. Let’s say Sean Carothers opts to withdraw his guilty plea. If Carothers pulls out, according to the bill of information filed in the U.S. District Court in Oxford, all deals are off. The prosecutors would have to go before a federal grand jury and seek an indictment, then, if they got it, come back and start all over again in court.

Tony Farese said Friday he’s not sure what his client will do because he hasn’t met with Carothers yet.

For more on this story, see the DJ on Saturday.

The beef processing plant saga continues

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Neal B. Biggers has said that a plea bargain with Sean Carothers, the president of the company that built the failed beef processing plant, “is overly lenient and too far below the sentencing guidelines for acceptance by the court.”

His sentence was to have been probation, $250,000 in restitution to to the state auditor’s office for investigative costs and a maximum fine of $20,000.

Biggers set Aug. 1 at 1:30 p.m. for a hearing, giving Carothers the option of going forward with the sentencing hearing knowing that the plea bargain isn’t accepted or withdrawing the plea he made in January and going to trial.

Carothers pleaded guilty to a count of mail fraud for allegedly paying money illegally to Richard Hall as kickbacks from payments for building the plant. Hall ran the plant that cost Mississippi taxpayers $50 million.

The plant closed after operating for three months because of defective equipment, according to court records.

Deja vu

For those of us who remember Watergate:

By TERENCE HUNT
AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, asserted executive privilege Thursday and rejected lawmakers’ demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors.
Bush’s attorney told Congress the White House would not turn over subpoenaed documents from former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor. Congressional panels want the documents for their investigations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ stewardship of the Justice Department, including complaints of undue political influence.
The Democratic chairmen of the two committees seeking the documents accused Bush of stonewalling and disdain for the law, and said they would press forward with enforcing the subpoenas.
“With respect, it is with much regret that we are forced down this unfortunate path which we sought to avoid by finding grounds for mutual accommodation,” White House counsel Fred Fielding said in a letter to the chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. “We had hoped this matter could conclude with your committees receiving information in lieu of having to invoke executive privilege. Instead, we are at this conclusion.”
Thursday was the deadline for surrendering the documents. The White House also made clear that Miers and Taylor would not testify next month, as directed by the subpoenas, which were issued June 13. The stalemate could end up with House and Senate contempt citations and a battle in federal court over separation of powers.
“Increasingly, the president and vice president feel they are above the law,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. He portrayed the president’s actions as “Nixonian stonewalling.”
His House counterpart, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said Bush’s assertion of executive privilege was “unprecedented in its breadth and scope” and displayed “an appalling disregard for the right of the people to know what is going on in their government.”
In his letter, Fielding said Bush had “attempted to chart a course of cooperation” by releasing more than 8,500 pages of documents and sending Gonzales and other senior officials to testify before Congress. The White House also had offered a compromise in which Miers, Taylor, White House political strategist Karl Rove and their deputies would be interviewed by Judiciary Committee aides in closed-door sessions, without transcripts.
Leahy and Conyers rejected that offer. Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said the Democrats should have accepted it.

What’s really in your toothpaste?

After reading about the poison-laced toothpaste from China at this site. I wandered over to the FDA to see what else they had posted warnings and such about. Gee! Wish I had never looked now.

No judicial hearing yet

Have been keeping an eye on the Senate Judiciary Committee to see when Circuit Court Judge Sharion Aycock will appear for her hearing prior to a vote by the full Senate. After watching the drama unfold with the White House and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, I’m not sure that she and the others Bush has nominated will get a vote until Gonzales resigns or Bush makes some recess appointments.

Jamie’s damaged truck

Thanks to cottonmouth blog for this tip. Seems like Phil Bryant’s car hit Jamie Frank’s truck on the Gulf Coast. Photos here.
We haven’t talked to either candidate for Lt. Gov., but received eyewitness details from the Mississippi Association of Supervisors meeting down on the coast.

Working women’s fashionista dies

 

Liz Claiborne made working women look good, especially during the 1970s and 1980s. Her fashion house announced today that Ms. Claiborne died at age 78 Tuesday after suffering for several years from cancer.

Here’s background from The Associated Press:

Claiborne founded Liz Claiborne Inc. in 1976 along with her husband Art Ortenberg and Leonard Boxer. Their goal was to create a collection of fashions aimed at the growing number of women entering the work force.

The new approach to dressing revolutionized the department store industry, which had only focused on stocking pants in one department and skirts in another.

The clothes became an instant hit, and the company went public in 1981. By 1985, Liz Claiborne Inc. was the first company founded by a woman to be listed in the Fortune 500, according to the company’s Web site. The company, whose brands now include Ellen Tracy, Dana Buchman and Juicy Couture, generated sales of almost $5 billion last year.

Liz Claiborne retired from the day-to-day operations in 1989.