World News

An update on the Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed expansion of the Mississippi State Port at Gulfport outlines options for the long-term. The complete study by the Corps of Engineers will be done in 2015.

Olympic gold medalist Brittney Reese of Gulfport is getting a hero's welcome.  She's also getting appreciation for taking her love for Mississippi onto the international stage.

Port Commissioners confirmed their promise to create 1,200 more jobs at the state port in Gulfport in order to get $570 million in restoration funds from HUD. The restoration from Hurricane Katrina is in progress, but some residents say the jobs aren't showing up soon enough.

The nation's blood supply is at a15-year low and the Red Cross region that includes South Mississippi never collects enough blood locally to meet the demand. Now the back-up from other areas is gone.

Port leaders are under pressure from the Governor to move forward aggressively with the $570 million expansion of the state port in Gulfport.  The Georgia Ports Authority has been working with the Corps of Engineers in Savannah for 13 years to to deepen the channel there.

"Ok that is important because everybody should know what other people believe in. Why they are wearing the turban, why they are wearing the beard. Why they are having all these things. Because if we know we will understand what they believe in, what they are doing."

Hands Across the Sand is one way Mississippi environmental groups are drawing a line against drilling in state waters. The Mississippi Development Authority and two environmental groups face off Wednesday at an administrative hearing on the drilling rules.

In a study on the effects of the BP oil spill, lead researcher Alice Ortmann says when the dispersant Corexit was added to water from the Gulf of Mexico, the number of ciliates and phytoplanktons went down by half and bacteria doubled. The study suggests a possible disturbance in the food chain.

"When you don't have other crops then you resort to illegal crops. if we can teach them how to grow vegetables, things to help them feed their families and things that they can do to raise their livestock to where they'll have meat to eat then those other things will go by the wayside."

The Port Commission submitted a revised plan for the state port in Gulfport to the Governor, who wants to speed up the expansion to create the port of the future.

The Gulf Coast Tourism Partnership created to dole out $16 million from BP will have $10 million spent by the end of this year.

Two Mississippi chefs are cooking at the Olympics in London. Chris Poplin of the IP Casino in Biloxi is cooking Cajun barbecue shrimp over grits with goat cheese, chives and smoked sausage. Calvin Coleman of Naomi's Catering in Gulfport is cooking seafood gumbo with alligator sausage.

Gulfport City Councilman R. Lee Flowers sent a letter to Governor Bryant yesterday recommending a change in leadership at the state port. Flowers says information about the benefits of a $570 million expansion has been kept from the public.

Shrinking  budgets. Dealing with disaster. Technology to help keep kids from dropping out. Those topics are on the agenda for school board members from 12 southern states meeting this week on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

"We do live in the bible belt. You're living with HIV automatically people think you did something wrong"