State
Poultry Plant Will Close In February
North Mississippi Herald
At presstime Tuesday, the Herald learned that Water Valley Poultry, LLC, will close on February 1. The plant employs 180 workers and has an average annual payroll of $3.5 million. The company was facing a challenge of investing more than a million dollars for infrastructure improvements while the price of the chicken products processed at the facility has plummeted due to tariffs.
Yalobusha County Economic Development and Tourism District Director Bob Tyler reported county officials planned to meet with the mayor and aldermen during Tuesday night’s city board meeting to coordinate an effort to assist the employees find employment after the doors close at the plant.
In September plant owner Mona Nicholas shared the challenges the plant faces with city officials, explaining that the business had experienced a decline since May due to tariff wars. She explained that China had purchased almost 90 percent of the chickens processed at the local plant. The plant processed spent hens that were egg layers.
She also explained that the domestic market for chickens processed at the plant is primarily for dog food because the meat is tough. Nicholas also explained that the 60s-era plant was antiquated and needed improvements when her company obtained it.
In recent months, the city and poultry plant officials were working to remedy wastewater issues at the plant. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality had put a deadline on the plant for the improvements to be made.
Mississippi DOT warns digging on Pearl River could collapse bridges
WJTV
Since the aftermath of the Easter flood back in 1979, city and state government officials have gone back and forth presenting numerous ideas to change the geographies of the Pearl River to prevent another major flood coming into down town Jackson.
Off-bottom oyster farming has promise for Mississippi
WLOX
BILOXI, MS (WLOX) - The Mississippi oyster season closes Thursday, and it’s been a rough one.
...The Department of Marine Resources provides classroom instruction and equipment for training. The project was paid for in part with federal funding from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality under the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act of 2012 (RESTORE Act).
Increase in Chronic Wasting Disease creates debate on deer feeding
WLBT
JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - There’s a new controversy regarding an issue that’s still on the minds of many hunters this fall: chronic wasting disease.
Meeting addresses questions surrounding chronic wasting disease
Monroe Journal
ABERDEEN – After a white-tailed deer in Pontotoc County was determined in October to have chronic wasting disease, questions and concerns have arisen among hunters throughout the area. Experts with the Mississippi State Extension Service and Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks (MDWFP) answered as many questions as they could Nov. 26 during a meeting to address the topic.
PROPOSED HATTIESBURG AMENDMENT WOULD REQUIRE CLOSED-IN TRASH BINS
Hub City Spokes
The large, often unsightly wire trash receptacles seen outside several Hattiesburg homes and businesses may soon be no more, as Hattiesburg City Council Vice President Mary Dryden has proposed an amendment to the city’s garbage ordinance that would require all trash containers to have four solid sides.
KSCB RECEIVES TRAILER
Simpson County News
Keep Mississippi Beautiful recently granted a trailer to Keep Simpson County Beautiful. The trailer will be used by KSCB organization for various beautification projects around the county.
Saltillo board settles sewer dispute
Daily Journal
In a brief meeting Tuesday, the Saltillo Board of Aldermen settled a sewer dispute with a resident and allowed a mini-storage project to move forward.
Local woman struggles to repair her car after getting faulty gas at a Jackson gas station
WJTV
A Jackson woman's car breaks down after getting faulty gas at a local gas station.
Mississippi Agriculture Commissioner is pushing for truth-in-labeling on lab-grown meat
WLBT
Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson is a champion for Genuine Mississippi products. So he’s found himself in a position to fight back on behalf of Mississippians when it comes to lab-grown meat.
Mississippi counties designated disaster areas by USDA
Monroe Journal
Twenty Mississippi counties have been designated as primary disaster areas by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue due to crop losses caused by excessive rainfall and prolonged flooding that occurred from April 1 to June 30, 2018.
Propeller blade broke, causing 2017 plane crash
AP
Investigators are blaming a broken propeller blade for causing a military plane crash last year that left 16 service members dead in a Mississippi soybean field.
State Government
Mississippi leaders set initial outline for state budget
AP
Top Mississippi lawmakers are setting an early and slightly diminished version of state budget recommendations for the coming year.
Will Mississippi teachers and other state employees get pay raises next year?
Clarion Ledger
Lawmakers on Wednesday adopted the outline of next year's state budget, and a rosier financial picture — and a looming election year — have them considering raises for teachers and state employees.
Williams to lead Homeland Security
Madison County Journal
A Madison County woman is now heading up the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security.
Regional
EPA dismisses civil rights complaint against Alabama environmental agency
Al.com
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has dismissed a complaint alleging that the Alabama Department of Environmental Management did not have adequate policies for accepting complaints of civil rights violations in the state after the department rescinded and rewrote its policies in the midst of a lawsuit.
Proposed $8.5 billion Plaquemines LNG terminal and pipeline faces environmental review
Times-Picayune
Coast Guard and Taylor Energy disagree over source of 14-year Gulf oil leak
Times-Picayune
The U.S. Coast Guard isn’t buying Taylor Energy’s explanation about what’s causing the oil company’s 14-year-old leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
National
Carbon emissions to hit record high in 2018: study
The Hill
Carbon emissions this year are expected to hit a record high, according to a scientific study released Wednesday.
Splits deepen as UN climate talks near crunch time
AP
KATOWICE, POLAND
Splits are deepening at the U.N. climate talks between rich and poor countries, oil exporters and vulnerable island nations, and those governments prepared for radical action on climate change versus those who want to wait and see.
New York Pushes Trump’s EPA on Unhealthy Air From Upwind States
Bloomberg
New York and New Jersey asked a judge to let them join a lawsuit that seeks to force the Trump administration to cut pollution blowing into the region from upwind states that they say is largely responsible for unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone, or smog.
US to ease oil drilling controls protecting imperiled bird
AP
BILLINGS, MONT.
The Trump administration moved forward Thursday with plans to ease restrictions on oil and gas drilling and other activities across millions of acres in the American West that were put in place to protect an imperiled bird species.
Microplastics found in the guts of all sea turtle species in new study
The Hill
Researchers found plastic in the guts of all sea turtle species examined in a new study.
The study published Tuesday in the journal Global Change Biology looked at over 100 turtles from all seven species spanning the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean.
Fish damage from Gold King Mine spill wasn’t severe, long-lasting, EPA says
AP
DENVER — Fish and other aquatic life did not suffer severe or long-lasting damage from a mine waste spill three years ago that polluted rivers in three states, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.
California officially becomes first in nation mandating solar power for new homes
Orange County Register
California officially became the first state in the nation on Wednesday, Dec. 5 to require homes built in 2020 and later be solar powered.
