WEATHER

141st Year, No. 29

Lillian McGregoryFifth grade, Annunciation

High 61 Low 36Increasing cloudsFull forecast on

page 3A.

FIVE QUESTIONS1 What kind of footwear does the Statue of Liberty wear on her feet?2 In what 2009 hit sci-fi film is a human infected with a virus from an alien living in a South African government camp?3 Who received a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2001 for pardoning Nixon in 1974?4 What R&B singer and dancer teamed up with Kanye West for the promo tour of his “Confessions” album?5 In which Nordic country did the wildly popular smartphone game “Angry Birds” originate in 2009?

Answers, 6B

INSIDEClassifieds 6BComics 3BCrossword 2B

Dear Abby 3BObituaries 4BOpinions 4A

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LOCAL FOLKS

Art Reyes, who lives in Steens, is a police dispatcher at the Mississippi University for Women. He and his wife Colleen are big fans of Pokémon.

PUBLIC MEETINGSApril 15: Lowndes County Board of Supervisors meeting, 9 a.m., Lowndes County CourthouseApril 17: Lowndes County School Board, 12:30 p.m., Central OfficeApril 21: Columbus City Council, 5 p.m., Municipal ComplexMay 11: Columbus Municipal School District, 6 p.m., Brandon Central Services Center

A NOTE ON NEWS■ Many COVID-19 corona-virus related sto-ries are changing extremely quick-ly, sometimes as soon as we publish a print edition of the paper. We want to assure our readers that we are making every attempt to print accurate, timely news. Online sto-ries are updated throughout the day at cdispatch.com.

BY ISABELLE ALTMANialtman@cdispatch.com

The Columbus Municipal School District board voted at a special-call meeting Monday to authorize Superintendent Cherie Labat and board attor-ney David Dunn to investigate whether state funds allocated for the district have paid for pri-

vate school students to attend the Golden Triangle Early Col-lege High School.

Last week, Labat recom-mended CMSD pull 44 Colum-bus students out of GTECHS next school year, ending a five-year relationship with the early college high school program. On Monday, board president Jason Spears said since then

district personnel discovered that some of “CMSD’s slots” at GTECHS may have been giv-en to rising freshmen who did not attend Columbus Middle School.

Specifically, Labat and Spears said, Annunciation Catholic School is listed among schools on the application where it asks students what

middle school they currently at-tend. ACS is a Columbus-based private school that only serves students through eighth grade.

“When the program was

started years ago under the current (memorandum of un-derstanding) that ends June 30, it was for a public school (in those districts)...,” Spears said. “And students who are rising freshmen from those particular public schools would have the opportunity to apply as well as attend the school.”

GTECHS, which is located on East Mississippi Community College’s Mayhew campus, has 222 students from Lowndes,

CMSD investigating if GTECHS took private school students, state moneySpears concerned district MAEP funds are paying for students from Annunciation, other area private schools at early college high school

SpearsLabat

Patient at The Arrington hospitalized with COVID-19DISPATCH STAFF REPORT

A Columbus assisted liv-ing facility resident is cur-rently in an area hospital with COVID-19, Plantation Pointe Retirement Company representatives confirmed.

The patient is a resident of The Arrington on Wind-

sor Boulevard, according to Misty Holder, admissions director and licensed social worker for Plantation Pointe, the company that oversees The Arrington and several other nursing assisted living facilities in Columbus.

Plantation Pointe facili-ties have been on lockdown

more than a month, along with most other assisted liv-ing facilities in the Golden Triangle area, in an effort to help curb the spread of COVID-19.

As of Monday morning, the last time Mississippi State Department of Health updated its website before

press time, there were 2,942 cases of COVID-19 report-ed in Mississippi, with 98 deaths.

There are 37 confirmed cases in Oktibbeha County, 25 in Lowndes County, 20 in Clay County and six in Noxu-bee County.

Nationwide, there have been almost 600,000 con-firmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 23,000 deaths.

CURBSIDE COOL DOWN

Tess Vrbin/Dispatch StaffKelly Moore, front, Melia Grant and Ethan Grant stretch after their daily neighborhood workout Monday afternoon in Starkville. The residents of Washington Street usually line the street at a safe social distance every day at 4:30 p.m. for exercise, but Monday saw less attendance because “it was ab day” and the weather was chilly, resident Debbie Buckner said.

BY YUE STELLA YUsyu@cdispatch.com

Grocery stores and retail stores selling food in Co-lumbus must comply with regulations set out by Mayor Robert Smith in a Monday letter to curb the spread of COVID-19.

A total of 25 let-ters were hand-deliv-ered to stores such as Walmart, Kroger, Bargain Hunt and Walgreens on Mon-day, said Columbus Police Chief Fred Shelton. The stores have until today to comply, he said.

Those who violate the regula-tions, Smith said, will be fined up to $1,000.

Smith said the city received numerous complaints about some food stores for not having all em-ployees wear masks and other pro-tective gear.

“I expect our store managers and operators in retail to be held accountable and be more responsi-ble,” Smith told The Dispatch this morning.

Stores must set up signage at the entrance to instruct customers to stay six feet away from each oth-er, and they must have marks on the floor measuring six-foot inter-vals between customers, the letter said. Signs encouraging cashless and online payments, pickups and self checkout lanes must also be in

Mayor tightens regulations for grocery stores, retail stores selling foodEmployees must wear protective gear, mark floors, enforce social distancing

See CMSD, 6A

Smith

Assisted living facility has been on lockdown more than a month

See REGULATIONS, 6A

Shelton

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com2A TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Ev-ery day, a team of public health officials turns up in the White House briefing room to lay out measures being taken to contain the coronavirus pandemic. A different team, expected to be formally announced as early as Tuesday, has begun meeting behind closed doors in the West Wing to tackle another matter paramount to Pres-ident Donald Trump: how to begin reopening the American economy.

The council, which is not expected to include health officials, could bring to the forefront the push-pull tensions within the White House between economists and public health officials over how quickly to reopen the economy vs. proceeding cautiously to ensure the virus doesn’t spike again.

With the country bar-reling toward a likely re-cession ahead of Novem-ber’s election, Trump is eager to spur an economic revival, hoping to steady financial markets and re-store some of the 16 mil-lion jobs already lost due to the pandemic. He orig-inally hoped to have the country stirring again by Easter but now wants at least a partial reopening by the end of the month.

Many medical experts in the government, includ-ing Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, have cautioned that easing up on social distancing too soon could lead a new wave of the disease that would require shuttering the economy again, with disastrous results.

As for the new council, Trump said he expected “they will give us some also good advice but no, we want to be very, very safe. At the same time we’ve got to get our coun-try open.”

Some ethics experts and participants in past councils created by Trump voiced concerned that the president may not be open to using the new panel to explore di-verse viewpoints and hard truths about the best path forward.

“It doesn’t work if you bring in the hallelujah cho-rus,” said Thea Lee, presi-dent of the Economic Poli-cy Institute, a left-leaning

Washington think tank. Lee served on a short-lived manufacturing coun-cil that Trump established early in his presidency.

Among those expected to be part of the new team:

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Housing and Urban De-velopment Secretary Ben Carson and White House economic advisers, past

and present, Kevin Has-sett and Larry Kudlow. New White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is ex-pected to chair the effort.

New Trump panel to explore path to reopening US economyMany medical experts caution that easing up on social distancing too soon could lead to a new wave of virus cases

NEW HOPE YMCA DISTRIBUTES SACK LUNCHES FRIDAY

Garrick Hodge/Dispatch StaffFrom left, Sara Parish, Hannah Perrigin and Andy Kalinowski prepare to distribute sack lunches to residents out-side of the New Hope YMCA building Friday afternoon. Each wore a mask as a precaution, and handed lunches to residents that drove up to the building.

Trump claims he has ‘total’ authority over reopening economyTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — President Don-ald Trump claimed the “total” authority to decide how and when to reopen the economy after weeks of tough social dis-tancing guidelines aimed at fighting the new coronavirus. But governors from both parties were quick to push back, noting they have primary responsibility for ensuring public safety in their states and would decide when it’s safe to begin a return to normal operations.

Trump would not offer specifics

about the source of his asserted power, which he claimed, despite constitution-al limitations, was absolute.

“When somebody is president of the United States, the authority is to-tal,” Trump said Monday at the White House. “The governors know that.”

The comments came not long after Democratic leaders in the Northeast and along the West Coast announced separate state compacts to coordinate their efforts to scale back stay-at-home orders or reopen businesses on their own timetables.

SOLUNAR TABLEThe solunar period indicates peak-feeding times for fish and game.

Courtesy of Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks

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The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020 3A

AREA ARRESTSThe following arrests

were made by the Oktib-beha County Sheriff’s Of-fice:

■ Jamaunte Thomp-son, 34, was charged with DUI 4th offense, disorder-ly conduct, public profani-ty, careless driving and no insurance.

■ Michael Toinee-ta, 43, was charged with house arrest violation.

■ Lavel Hudson, 34, was charged with MDOC hold.

■ Edward Dotson, 39, was charged with aggra-vated assault.

DotsonHudsonToineetaThompson

BY EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS The Associated Press

JACKSON — The Mis-sissippi Department of Corrections on Monday night made its first an-nouncement of a coronavi-rus case in one of the state prisons.

An inmate at the Mis-sissippi State Penitentiary was found to have had to the virus after he died, the department said in a news release. It did not give the inmate’s name or say when he died. It said he had un-derlying health problems.

“We are committed to protecting the health and well-being of all within our system,” Interim Correc-tions Commissioner Tom-my Taylor said.

He said that since the beginning of the pandemic,

Mississippi has limited the transfer of inmates from prison to prison. The only visitors allowed are attor-neys, and daily screenings are done of prison workers.

“With this first positive case, we have further iso-lated all the affected areas and increased screenings for all the inmates who came in contact with the individual,” Taylor said. “Inmates who came in close contact with the pos-itive individual have been provided with masks.”

A Mississippi mayor said Monday that people will not have to pay $500 tickets that police issued to them last week for attend-ing drive-up church ser-vices during the pandemic.

Greenville Mayor Err-ick D. Simmons said, how-ever, that the city’s ban on

such gatherings remains in place to try to save lives as the highly contagious virus continues to spread. The Democrat also called on Republican Gov. Tate Reeves to issue clear state-wide guidance on whether people are allowed to con-gregate for worship during the governor’s statewide stay-at-home order that re-mains in effect until April 20.

The governor’s order tells people not to gather in groups of 10 or more. Reeves has said he would prefer that churches not hold services in sanctuar-ies or parking lots. But he has also said government does not have the right to ban worship.

Figures released Mon-day by the state Health Department showed Mis-sissippi had at least 2,942 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 98 deaths from it as of Sunday eve-ning. That was an increase of 161 cases and two deaths from the previous day. The state’s population is about 3 million.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with ex-isting health problems, the highly contagious virus can cause severe symp-toms and be fatal.

Reeves said during a briefing Monday that Mis-sissippi, like other states, is in an “economic crisis” because of the pandemic. He said he will continue to consult health experts about when a wide reopen-ing of businesses might be safe.

“We need to open things up as quickly as we respon-sibly can,” Reeves said.

He will announce Tues-day whether he will keep public schools closed be-

yond this Friday.The state health officer,

Dr. Thomas Dobbs, said Monday that Mississippi is approaching its projected peak for virus cases. He said coronavirus patients were in 124 intensive care unit beds in the state Sun-day, and 206 other ICU beds were available. Dobbs said 84 of the virus patients were on ventilators, and 496 other ventilators were available statewide. The Health Department had previously not provided information about ventila-tors.

The coronavirus has spread rapidly in Washing-ton County, where Green-ville is located. The new Health Department fig-ures show the county has at least 57 confirmed cas-

es in a population of about 44,000. The Greenville mayor said Monday that city leaders are not trying to deny people the ability to practice their faith.

Texas-based First Lib-erty Institute emailed a letter to Greenville officials Thursday demanding that the city drop the “draconi-an and unconstitutional” restriction on worship ser-vices. The group said the pastor of one Greenville church has been standing in the parking lot and us-ing a bullhorn to deliver his sermon while people sit in a few cars to listen. The letter said Greenville police issued $500 tickets on Wednesday to people parked outside another church for a similar ser-vice.

Mississippi prison system confirms its 1st case of COVID-19‘... We have further isolated all the affected areas and increased screenings for all the inmates who came in contact with the individual’

Interim Corrections Commissioner Tommy Taylor

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOSS — With a torna-do bearing down on their rural home, Andrew Phil-lips told his wife to grab their two children and get into the safest place they had: A small room built from concrete blocks.

It was a decision that likely saved four lives.

While the rest of their home was obliterated in a matter of seconds Sunday afternoon, Phillips, wife Amber and their kids,

ages 2 and 6 months, sur-vived without a scratch inside their safe room, which doubles as a closet.

The family had been watching an online Easter service on Sunday morn-ing. Phillips, a volunteer firefighter, then started tracking the weather on-line and with the help of a fire radio.

Realizing a tornado was close by, Phillips told Amber to get in the safe room with the kids and joined them. Then, after ducking outside and see-ing the funnel cloud, he grabbed more bedroom pillows and jumped back inside, shielding his fam-ily with his body.

“I was in there about 20 seconds when it hit,” he said. “The house is gone,

everything but the safe room.”

The family had been living in the house only a few weeks. The safe room was one of the reasons he bought it, Phillips said.

Clothes were still hanging neatly inside the vault-like structure after the tumult. But the man’s meat-processing business next door was smashed, as were their cars. Pieces of broken lumber, splin-tered trees and twisted wiring littered their prop-erty.

“I’m just going to let the insurance handle it and trust in the good Lord,” Phillips told The Associ-ated Press by phone Mon-day. “We’re going to try to come back bigger and better.”

Concrete room saves Mississippi family of 4 from Sunday twister‘The house is gone, everything but the safe room’

Moss resident Andrew Phillips

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

C O L U M -BUS — The first woman to serve as a Mississippi Supreme Court justice has died at the age of 88.

Retired Justice Lenore Loving Prather died Saturday at her home in Columbus, according to a news release issued by the court Monday.

Prather was appointed to the nine-member court in 1982 by then-Gov. William Winter.

She was also the first woman to serve as chief justice, hold-ing that role from January 1998 until her retirement in January 2001.

“She served with class, character, scholarship and im-peccable integrity,” one of her Supreme Court colleagues, Bill Waller Jr., said in the news re-lease.

Prather was interim pres-ident of Mississippi Universi-ty for Women from July 2001 to June 2002. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the school in 1953, when it was still

called Mississippi State Col-lege for Women. She was one of only three women in law school at the University of Mississip-pi when she started studying there in 1953. She completed her law degree in 1955.

Prather became a city judge in her hometown of West Point in 1965. She held that post until September 1972, when then-Gov. John Bell Williams ap-pointed her as a chancery judge for Chickasaw, Clay, Lowndes, Noxubee, Oktibbeha and Web-ster counties. She was the first woman to serve as a chancery

judge. Chancellors’ duties in-clude hearing land disputes, di-vorces, child custody cases.

As a Supreme Court justice, Prather wrote a decision in a case that specified factors to de-termine a child’s best interests in a custody dispute between parents. She wrote a decision in another case that set guidelines for equitable distribution of marital assets in divorce, which included giving women credit for non-financial contributions to the family.

Waller retired as chief jus-tice in early 2019. He said in the news release Monday that he considered Prather a mentor. He said she played an import-ant part in the design and fund-

ing of the current Gartin Jus-tice Building in Jackson, which houses the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals.

Mississippi University for Women awarded Prather its Medal of Excellence in 1990 and the MUW Alumni Achieve-ment Award in 1993. The Uni-versity of Mississippi induct-ed her into its Hall of Fame in 1986. The University of Missis-sippi School of Law named her alumna of the year in 1995, and inducted her into its Law Alum-ni Hall of Fame in 2012. Then-Gov. Haley Barbour awarded Prather the Mississippi Medal of Service in 2009.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete Monday.

Prather, 1st woman Mississippi Supreme Court justice, dies‘She served with class, character, scholarship and impeccable integrity’

Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr.

Prather

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OpinionPETER BIRNEY IMES Editor/PublisherBIRNEY IMES III Editor/Publisher 1998-2018BIRNEY IMES JR. Editor/Publisher 1947-2003BIRNEY IMES SR. Editor/Publisher 1922-1947

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the

STATE OF THE NATION

In the time of the virus, grooming takes a hitA friend closed

in his northern Italian apart-

ment for almost six weeks emailed me saying that his wife says he looks like a “clochard.” That’s French for street bum. This from a man who once was a walking advertisement for fine Italian tailoring.

Grooming has tak-en a hit as the corona-virus shuts down public life. That’s understand-able, though others in the household might like a spiffier cellmate.

The following is not for those suffering from the coronavirus. Their only job is recovery. Rather, it is for the healthy self-quarantining masses stuck for weeks in their homes. Trips to the drugstore or supermarket don’t count as public outings. Notice how they’re also looking shabby.

It’s an interesting experiment to shuffle through the days in pajama bottoms or sweat-pants with an occasional upgrade to jeans. Can I wear a T-shirt with a coffee stain? Just for today — and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

With hair salons closed, we’re getting to see the real color of people’s hair. “Here comes the 2-inch zebra stripe of roots,” a dark-haired friend told me. Pulling one’s hair back would be a mistake, she adds.

My friend worried that a run on root touch-up spray would leave the drugstore shelves in the hair color section as empty as the ones for thermometers. Hasn’t happened yet, she reports.

No sympathy here for people desperate for a cut. Toughen up, I say. But gray roots? That’s a real concern for vain people of a certain age, not that I would know.

There’s all sorts of advice on upping one’s game for those times when you must greet your public in a video conference. Much of it centers on what you should wear — from the waist up. Below the camera’s eye, no one at the other end can see what you have on or don’t have on.

Of course, you must also fix up the part of your home that appears behind you. For a Zoom call with my stylish friend, I placed a small vase of daffodils within the “eyesight” of the computer. “How do you like the flowers?” I asked. “Nice,” she answered, “but you might not want the box of 500 envelopes in the back.”

My precious bottle of Purell “advanced” hand sanitizer advertises that it “kills 99.99% of most illness causing germs.” I bought it for a couple of dollars before the pandemic. Black marketeers are now apparently trying to sell it for more than a flask of Chanel No. 5.

I do wonder about the virus-fighting abilities of my fancy lavender and rosemary liquid hand soap, a relic of gentler times. The label says, “Specially formulated to leave your hands feel-ing silky, refreshed and slightly scented.”

Can a soap that doesn’t leave the skin dry, cracked and smelling like a pesticide do the job? I’ve decided to continue using the lovely scented soap on the assumption that the virus does not like nice things.

The Wall Street Journal interviewed some beauty experts on how they’re maintaining standards. One makeup artist said she is giving herself facials with a microneedle derma-roller. A Paris-based acupuncturist revealed she is running a gua sha stone tool over her skin to release tension.

If you don’t know what a gua sha stone tool is, ask Amazon. They’re apparently still in stock. The Journal article advises trying some of these home treatments “so you can at least feel human again.”

Actually, the lapse in grooming is, in a way, making some of us feel more human than ever — in the minimalistic, homo sapiens sense. If you don’t apply the vitamin C serum today, no one will notice.

Froma Harrop, a syndicated columnist, writes for the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal. Her e-mail address is fharrop@gmail.com.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Voice of the peopleAppreciates responsiveness

Lowndes County personnel deserve praise. First thing this morning they were out cutting up a large branch that fell in the storm last night that was blocking Gilmer Wilburn Road. I have found them to be very responsive in the past too.

Virginia Lane Hardy PierrotColumbus

Feels GTECHS decision was ‘underhanded’

I am extremely disappointed in CMSD’s decision to terminate their contract with GTECHS. For a district whose motto is “every decision in the best interest of students,” I do not believe that is so after their decision a couple of nights ago.

They did not ask the students their opinion. They did not ask the parents their opinion. I believe it was solely based on financial reasons. I do not feel like it’s fair to those kids who worked their butt off to go through the interview process at GTECHS and they got into GTECHS only to not be able to return in August with their

Wildcat family because that’s what they are out there.

There are a lot of people who are hurting right now, and I be-lieve it was an underhanded effort by Dr. Labat. That board agenda did not come out until after 5:30; that meeting started at 5:30. So nobody knew what was on that agenda. I feel like she needs to be held accountable for her actions and the board members should be too. I feel like they should’ve gotten more information instead of just a numbers game. This is more than just how much it costs to transport and how much it costs per student. This is a decision that was made abruptly.

Some children do not thrive in big classroom settings, and at GTECHS they have a lower num-ber of students. They’re in more of a caring attitude and atmosphere. A lot of kids that go out there are kids that were having issues in their own home school, whether it was being bullied or not under-standing the material.

I’m a Lowndes County School District parent, and my child’s home school is Caledonia, but she

does attend GTECHS. If Lown-des County follows the same way Columbus did, I am going to be extremely disappointed and not to mention, my child is going to be extremely disappointed. I don’t think they factored in everything when they made that decision and I don’t feel like the board members had all of the information they needed.

Danielle BerghuisCaledonia

Thinks parents, GTECHS should have been notified

I live here in Columbus, and I want to be in support of Colum-bus students being able to go to GTECHS. It was unfair for the school board to have their meet-ing and unanimously decide that Columbus students cannot go to GTECHS anymore without inform-ing the parents or even the ad-ministration of GTECHS that they were going to consider that vote. I just wanted that to be put forward that I am in support of Columbus students going to GTECHS.

Bruce MizeColumbus

A MOMENT OF CALMDon’t quit

When things go wrong, as they some-times will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,When the funds are low but the debts are high,

And you want to smile but you have to sigh,When care is pressing you down a bit…Rest if you must, but don’t you quit!Life is queer with its twists and turns,As every one of us sometimes learns,And many failures turn aboutWhen we might have won had we stuck it out.

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow…You may succeed with another blow.Often the struggler has given upWhen he might have captured the victor’s cup;And he learned too late when the night came down,How close he was to the golden crown.Success is failure turned inside out…And you can never tell how close you areIt may be near when it seems so far.So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hitIt’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

— Edgar A. Guest

“

Froma Harrop

Social distancing is affecting us all in different ways. We want to hear how you’re doing. The Dispatch has set up a voicemail so our readers can share their thoughts and feelings during this unique time. If you want to share, please call 662-328-2424 and dial extension 101. You can leave a message 24 hours a day. Certain messages will be selected to print in the paper. Even if we don’t select yours, know that someone is out there listening and you’re not alone. We’re all in this together.

CARTOONIST VIEW

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020 5A

BY JOSH FUNK The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. — Some massive meat processing plants have closed at least temporarily because their workers were sickened by the new coronavirus, rais-ing concerns that there could soon be shortages of beef, pork and poultry in supermarkets.

The meat supply chain is especially vulnerable since processing is in-creasingly done at mas-sive plants that butcher tens of thousands of ani-mals daily, so the closure of even a few big ones can quickly be felt by custom-ers. For instance, a Smith-field Foods plant that was forced to close in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after nearly 300 of the plant’s 3,700 workers tested posi-tive for the virus produces roughly 5 percent of the U.S. pork supply each day.

In addition, conditions at plants can be ripe for exploitation by the virus: Workers stand shoul-der-to-shoulder on the line and crowd into lock-er rooms to change their

clothes before and after shifts.

The virus has infected hundreds of workers at plants in Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa, Pennsylva-nia, Mississippi and else-where. The capacity of plants that remain open has also been hurt by workers who are sick or staying home because of fears of illness — though it’s not clear by how much.

While company own-ers promise to deep clean their plants and resume operations as quickly as possible, it’s difficult to keep workers healthy giv-en how closely they work together.

“There is no social dis-tance that is possible when you are either working on the slaughter line or in a processing assignment,” said Paula Schelling, act-ing chairwoman for the food inspectors union in the American Federation of Government Employ-ees.

The reduced produc-tion so far has been offset by the significant amount of meat that was in cold storage, said Glynn Ton-

sor, an agricultural econ-omist at Kansas State University. Producers are also working to shift meat that would have gone to now-closed restaurants over to grocery stores.

Whether shoppers start to see more empty shelves or higher prices will depend on how many plants close and for how long.

At least half a dozen plants have closed tem-porarily, but that’s across the pork, chicken and beef sectors, and Tonsor said the industry can manage for now.

“You could shut multi-ple plants down for a day or two, and we’ve got wig-gle room to handle that,” said Tonsor. “But if you took four or five of those big plants ... and they had to be down for two weeks, then you’ve got a game changer.”

Still, the reduced meat processing capacity is al-ready driving down the prices farmers and ranch-ers receive for cattle, hogs and chickens.

“It’s like people on an escalator. Stopping the pork chain at the top of an escalator is just going to cause all sorts of tragedy and disaster all the way back up the system,” said Dermot Hayes, professor of economics and finance at Iowa State University.

Virus closes some meat plants, raising shortage fear

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ORLANDO, Fla. — The U.S. Census Bureau wants to delay deadlines for the 2020 head count of all U.S. residents because of the coronavirus outbreak, a move that if approved by lawmakers would push back timetables for releasing data used to draw congressional and legislative districts, offi-cials said Monday.

Census Bureau officials said they were postpon-ing all field operations until June 1 and the deadline for wrapping up the nation’s head count was being pushed back to Oct. 31.

Field operations for the 2020 census have been suspended since mid-March and were set to re-sume this week. The deadline for finishing the head count also had been pushed back from the end of July to mid-August because of the pandemic.

Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, whose department oversees the bureau, said they are seeking to delay the deadline for delivering state population counts used for apportionment — the process of carving up congressional districts — from the end of this year to the end of April 2021.

They also want to push back the deadline for giving states data for redistricting from the end of March 2021 to the end of July 2021.

Officials want delay in nation’s head count due to coronavirus

BY JOSH BOAK AP Economics Writer

BALTIMORE — It’s been two weeks since President Donald Trump signed into law a $2.2 trillion economic rescue package that will distrib-ute money to struggling individuals and business-es. It feels like a lot longer than that to James Stearns of Gulfport, Mississippi.

His job installing vinyl floors was reduced to just one day a week because of the coronavirus outbreak. He’s barely sleeping. The April rent on his trailer is past due. Unless the combined $2,400 that he and his wife are to receive from the rescue package arrives soon, they and their two chihuahuas will be homeless.

“I’m fixing to be evict-ed — I can’t pay any-thing,” said Stearns, 52. “I don’t even have power right now. Hot as it is, we’re sitting here sweat-ing to death.”

The administration is in a race against time, trying to provide fami-lies and businesses with enough money to survive

the devastating economic plunge caused by the pan-demic. Neither the White House nor the Treasury Department could say when asked late last week how much of the $2.2 tril-lion has actually reached needy Americans. Econ-omists have said that the cash infusions will be crucial for sustaining the world’s largest economy.

The task of injecting this much cash into the entire country on a scale never before attempted is monumental. And it’s ur-gent: One in 10 U.S. work-ers lost their jobs in the past three weeks. Half of working households say they’ve lost income. The economy is expected to shrink at a shocking 30 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter.

“There is no way we could have been opera-tionally prepared to put this much money into the economy immediately,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Commit-tee for a Responsible Fed-eral Budget, which has long advocated for fiscal restraint but supported

the rescue package.The $290 billion in

checks to individuals is just starting to flow and might go out in meaningful sums beginning Monday, according to comments by Treasury Secretary Ste-ven Mnuchin and a memo from the IRS. About a third of the $349 billion for preserving small busi-nesses’ payrolls has been approved. But the gov-ernment hasn’t said how much money has actually gone to those employers so far.

The major airlines, seeking $25 billion to cov-er their payroll expenses, are still negotiating with Treasury over the terms. It remains unclear wheth-er the government will proceed with a plan to take ownership stakes in the airlines in exchange for that aid.

Most states are still working to try to distrib-ute the additional $600 a week in unemployment benefits provided in the federal package, on top of state benefits. Overload-ed, outdated computer systems are delaying the

process in some states. There is also health and disaster spending, aid to state governments, pay-roll tax credits and $510 billion in loans for large employers for which the guidelines are still un-known.

The roll-out of congres-sional aid has been nota-bly slow compared with the aggressive steps tak-en by the Federal Reserve, which quickly slashed its benchmark interest rate to near zero and offered $2 trillion in loans to businesses and state and local governments. The Fed can shore up markets and instill confidence. But families and small busi-nesses depend most on Congress for immediate help.

From people and firms desperate for aid, one question: When?Economists have said the cash infusions will be crucial for sustaining the world’s largest economy

The reduced meat processing capacity is already driving down the prices farmers and ranchers receive for cattle, hogs and chickens

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com6A TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020

Health tips from Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen

HealthHEALTH TIP■ Neither fat nor carbs make you fat: Fat has often been blamed for obesity, as it has more calories per gram than protein and carbs. Yet, people who eat a diet high in fat — but low in carbs — end up eating fewer calories than people on low-fat, high-carb diets. This has conversely led many people to blame carbs for obesity.

Source: healthline.com

Stand up for your heartWhen the NCAA canceled

March Madness it was only a matter of time until one group or another decided to come up with a substi-tute tournament — brackets and all. But we never could have guessed it would be in the form of the Ultimate Stand-Up Comic Bracket. Their final round put Norm Macdonald up against Dave Chappelle, and Macdonald came out the winner, garnering 53.49 percent of the 18,020 votes cast. We owe a lot to the stand-ups. They deliver laughter that raises our spirits and dispels our stress.

It seems standing up and moving around starting first thing in the morning can do that for you too. A new study in the journal Hyperten-sion reveals that adding a 30 minute morning walk to an otherwise sedentary day helps obese folks age 55 to 80 lower their blood pressure. Over three weeks, the sedentary folks who did the rise-and-shine walk saw their systolic (top) num-ber fall by an average of 3.4 points and their diastolic number by up to 1.6.

Those who added a pattern of standing up every 30 minutes and doing three minutes of light-inten-sity walking to the morning 30 min-ute meander saw their top number go down an average of 5.1 points and the lower number decline by up to 1.8. In addition, women saw

their levels of the stress hormone epinephrine decline by 12 percent to 13 percent.

Making these small changes to the daily pattern of inactivity can help protect against high blood pressure-re-lated heart attack and stroke. And that’s no laughing matter.

Added sugar is even worse for you than you knew

In “Hansel and Gretel” the kids have an appetite for a house made of cake, with sugar windows and candy decorations, that leads them straight into the clutches of an evil hag. In “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Augustus Gloop nearly drowns in the Chocolate River, and Violet Beauregarde becomes a giant blueberry after chowing down a three-course-dinner gum. But their fates were not nearly as bad as what added sugar intake does to your levels of good HDL cholesterol and potentially harmful triglycerides.

Research based on the Framing-ham Heart Study found that when folks who are 40 and older drink 12 ounces a day of sugar-sweet-ened beverages — such as sodas, fruit-flavored drinks, sports drinks

and presweetened coffees and teas — it causes potentially heart-damaging changes in those blood lipid levels. It isn’t just be-cause added sugar makes you gain weight — although it does and obesity is very hard on the heart — it’s sugar itself that inhib-

its an enzyme that breaks down triglycerides and lowers your level of healthy HDL, possibly by altering liver function.

Americans are sugar crazed, consuming an average of 57 pounds of added sugar annually! It’s con-tributing to a roster of health woes, from angina and diabetes to a lousy sex life, increased cancer growth, dementia and depression. So, opt for water, unsweetened tea and coffee, and avoid processed foods. Read ingredient lists and nutritional labels to see if there’s added sugar — it gets added to everything from frozen green beans and pasta sauce to instant oatmeal and coleslaw.

Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of Wellness Institute at Cleve-land Clinic. To live your healthiest, tune into “The Dr. Oz Show” or visit www.sharecare.com.

Drs. Oz and Roizen

CMSDContinued from Page 1A

Oktibbeha, Clay and Nox-ubee counties, including the 44 from the Colum-bus area, Labat said. The school is designed for stu-dents who wouldn’t nec-essarily thrive, either so-cially or academically, in a traditional high school and allows students the opportunity to take col-lege-level courses and graduate high school with an associate’s degree.

Students are accepted to GTECHS on an appli-cation basis, and home school districts receive state funds for each stu-dent that attends there.

Spears said the addi-tion of Annunciation on the application raised concerns that funding from Mississippi Ade-quate Education Program allocated to CMSD but diverted to Columbus students at GTECHS is actually paying for some students who have never attended CMSD schools.

MAEP allocates funds to districts based on a headcount of the number of students in that dis-trict from the year before, Spears explained to The Dispatch after the meet-ing. However, they with-hold a certain amount from the district and send it to GTECHS based on the number of Columbus students GTECHS re-ports having.

“If you have a student who is not a registered student at CMSD, they are not a part of that count,”

Spears said. “Therefore we as a district do not re-ceive funds for those stu-dents who are not in the count, but then you go to the next year and MDE is withholding dollars (that will go to GTECHS instead). That reduces the amount for students who were in the count (because the money) is being redirected to this program.”

Blowback from decision

Labat said last week she was concerned both about the rising costs of sending CMSD students to GTECHS — it would cost the district more than $130,000 in the upcoming school year — and that she believed Columbus High School could pro-vide students with the dual credit courses and small class sizes touted at GTECHS.

The district’s decision to end its relationship with GTECHS has caused blowback from some in the community who be-lieve the Columbus stu-dents currently studying at the early college high school should be able to finish their education there. GTECHS student Joshua Helton, whose letter to the editor argu-ing in favor of Columbus students continuing at GTECHS published in The Dispatch on Sunday, has started an online peti-

tion on change.org called “Keep Columbus kids at GTECHS.” As of press time today, the petition had more than 1,000 sig-natures.

“Out of nowhere the Columbus school district wants to pull the kids and the entire Columbus school district out of the Golden Triangle early college high school pro-gram!” Helton says in the petition. “The GTECHS school is a family and they deserve to stay a family!”

GTECHS Principal Jill Savely did not return a call from The Dispatch Monday. EMCC Presi-dent Scott Alsobrooks said he doesn’t know enough about GTECHS’ admission process and “did not want to get into a he said-she said kind of thing” about which stu-dents are being accepted. He said he would email The Dispatch a state-ment breaking down the school’s admissions crite-ria, but had not done so as of press time.

Savely previously said the admissions process includes a written appli-cation, which must be filled out by potential stu-dents and their parents, followed by a round of in-terviews to whittle down candidates. The final stu-dents are chosen through a random selection pro-gram handled by a com-pany in North Carolina.

Labat said she is con-cerned Columbus Mid-

dle School teachers and administrators are not heavily involved in the selection of students and that those teachers are the ones most qualified to know whether a particu-lar child needs GTECHS or a similar program to succeed.

“Overall I don’t feel like the application process properly gives indicators to students at risk … of graduating,” she said.

Hunt roofIn other business, the

board also accepted a bid from Louisiana-based Advantage Roofing Con-struction to repair build-ings on the former Hunt High School campus damaged in a February 2019 tornado that dam-aged school buildings.

The cost for recon-struction of the school, which previously housed Hunt Success Academy, will be $1,132,958.

Insurance will pay for all but $147,510, which is set aside particularly for Hunt Museum, which was housed in one of the buildings on the campus and not covered by insur-ance. Spears and Labat said Federal Emergency Management Agency and Mississippi Emergency Management Agency will pay for all but 12.5 per-cent of those costs, leav-ing the district to pay for a little less than $20,000, he said.

RegulationsContinued from Page 1A

place when possible, the letter said.

The letter requires all employees to wear facial masks, face shields and food-grade gloves when they have to be within six feet of customers, and some employees must be tasked to enforce social distancing among cus-tomers.

Stores equipped with public-addressing sys-tems must also make regular public announce-

ments encouraging so-cial distancing, the letter said.

“Many of these em-ployees come in contact with hundreds of differ-ent people every day,” Smith said in a Monday press release. “These businesses must follow these regulations until further notice.”

Before the letter was sent out, wearing masks was not required at the Food Giant store in East

Columbus, said manager Dan Price.

“It was more optional,” Price said. “Some people feel kind of suffocated by them. Takes a little while to get used to it, including myself, but we are in com-pliance now.”

The store has enough protection equipment for employees, he said, so it was easy for the store to comply with the regula-tions.

“What they asked was

not a hardship on the store at all,” Price said.

Representatives from Kroger and Sunflower Food Store declined to comment on the mayor’s restrictions when con-tacted today.

For stores lacking in protection gears, Smith said they can reach out to the city’s community out-reach coordinator Glenda Buckhalter Richardson for resources donated by community members.

If you don’t read The Dispatch, how are you gonna know?

SECTION

BSPORTS LINE662-241-5000Sports

THE DISPATCH n CDISPATCH.COM n TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020

ANALYSIS: MCCRAY-PENSON CAN WIN NOW AT MSUMISSISSIPPI STATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Bulldogs’ talented roster seemingly in place for former Old Dominion coachBY BEN PORTNOYbportnoy@cdispatch.com

STARKVILLE — Nik-ki McCray-Penson is used to rebuilding jobs.

When she joined Dawn Staley at South Carolina ahead of the 2008 sea-son, the Gamecocks had been to just two Sweet 16s since 1990. Over the nine years they spent together in Columbia, Staley and McCray-Penson brought four SEC regular season championships, three conference tournament ti-tles and the 2017 national title.

Though not quite to the same heights, Mc-Cray-Penson also bol-stered an Old Dominion program that boasts a ro-bust history but had been lacking for some time. Un-der longtime coach Wen-dy Larry, the Monarchs reached seven Sweet 16s and the 1997 national championship game be-fore the team fell off. De-spite that, if not for the outbreak of COVID-19, McCray-Penson was slat-ed to guide ODU to its first NCAA tournament since 2008 and complete a turnaround that saw her win eight games her inaugural year in Norfolk to 24 this past season — earning herself Confer-ence USA coach of the year honors.

But as McCray-Penson takes the reins from Vic Schaefer in Starkville, the Bulldogs are not a program in need of a re-build. Rather, it’s whether they’re built to last that remains the largest ques-tion around the program.

“This is a national brand with incredible peo-ple, a storied tradition and an outstanding communi-ty that is second to none,”

McCray-Penson said in a news release Saturday. “I am confident that my ex-periences as a coach and player have prepared me for this, and I will pour everything I have into our student-athletes and pro-gram.”

While there were ini-tially concerns that MSU might undergo a staunch roster overturn should administrators not hire former associate head coach Johnnie Harris, those issues were seem-ingly quelled in recent days, as numerous mem-bers of this year’s squad tweeted excitement at McCray-Penson’s hiring.

“We locked in ... can’t wait to be back in the hump again #HailState,” freshman guard Aliyah Matharu tweeted Mon-day.

“It’s HAIL STATE til the day I die babyyy,” se-

nior guard Andra Espino-za-Hunter wrote Sunday.

Most notably, it was the backing of all-SEC second-team honorees Rickea Jackson and Jes-sika Carter that stands to be the most important coup of all.

Jackson should enter next season on the short-list for SEC and national player of the year honors after she averaged 15.1 points and 5.1 rebounds per game last season — including six 20-point games in her final 12 contests. A future WN-BA-type talent, Jackson will be expected to take another step forward in her sophomore cam-paign.

Carter’s buy-in is also a welcome addition after she watched her minutes increase from 10.8 to 28.8 per game from her freshman to sophomore

season. Granted, MSU could stand to see her time on the floor decrease slightly with another post presence, but the Georgia product was a revelation of sorts as she averaged 13 points and 8.7 rebounds per game in a starring role this past year.

Other names that could help McCray com-pete immediately include Matharu and fellow ris-ing-sophomore JaMya Mingo-Young. Matharu is the likeliest breakout can-didate of MSU’s returners given her knack for find-ing a bucket. Twice earn-ing SEC freshman of the week honors, she aver-aged 15.4 points per game In the Bulldogs’ final five games of the year — most notably her 17-point out-burst against Staley’s No. 1-ranked South Carolina squad in the SEC tourna-

ment final.Mingo-Young should

factor in heavily, as she proved to be a rough and rugged defender in her first season and offered some high-end upside on the offensive end that starting point guard Myah Taylor lacks.

MSU also stands to benefit from the addi-tions of incoming fresh-men Madison Hayes and Deyona Gaston and junior Michigan State transfer Sidney Cooks. Hayes be-came the second McDon-ald’s All-American to sign with the Bulldogs out of high school this year and is a dynamic scorer off the wing in the same way Jackson has proved her-self, while Gaston could see some minutes in the post.

As for Cooks, she too was a McDonald’s All-American coming out

of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and offers a unique ability to stretch the floor despite her 6-foot-4-inch frame.

Of course, some attri-tion was expected. Since Schaefer took the job at Texas, freshman guard Jayla Hemingway com-mitted to continue her career at West Virgin-ia, while junior forward Chloe Bibby announced her intention to enter the transfer portal April 6.

That said, expect a few other players to join the fold — whether by trans-fer or signing — ahead of next year as MSU boasts four open scholarships heading into the offsea-son.

At present, the Bull-dogs were ranked No. 3 in ESPN’s way-too-early top 25 poll for next sea-son. And while the rank-ings were released prior to Schaefer’s departure and McCray-Penson’s hiring, the talent that re-mains and could arrive in Starkville should be plenty capable of keeping the Bulldogs among the nation’s elite despite the turnover — especially giv-en their new head coach’s penchant for success at her previous stops.

“Nikki has achieved success at every step of her career, both as a coach and player,” MSU Athletic Director John Co-hen said in a news release Saturday. “She is a proven winner who will lead one of the best women’s bas-ketball programs in the nation. We are excited to welcome Nikki and her family to Starkville and are thrilled that she will lead us into the next chap-ter of Mississippi State women’s basketball.”

Old Dominion AthleticsNikki McCray-Penson will inherit a talented roster in Starkville and will have high expectations in her first season with the Bulldogs. She won 24 games this year and was poised to take the Monarchs to the NCAA tournament.

MISSISSIPPI STATE SOFTBALL

Catching up with MSU signee Addison PurvisBY THEO DEROSAtderosa@cdispatch.com

Addison Purvis was down but not out.

When the Sullivan High School (Missouri) softball star’s left leg gave out on a pitch against Reeds Spring on Oct. 3, she left the game, but she wasn’t off the field for long.

After missing three games because of the injury — one doctor told her she’d popped her knee out of place; anoth-er indicated damage to her lateral collateral liga-ment — the two-way star played through the pain to lead the Eagles to the Class 3 state tournament, where they finished sec-ond.

“It was kinda hard, but I just kept pushing myself through,” Purvis said. “I knew something was wrong with it, but it didn’t faze me because I wanted to make it to state.”

Shortly after her se-nior season ended, Purvis met with another doctor, who ordered an MRI. She soon got the news: She’d just played her final seven games on a torn ACL.

Purvis, who signed with Mississippi State in December, is still re-covering after having surgery to repair the lig-ament in mid-November.

She’s not sure if she will be ready to participate in practices in Starkville this fall, but she’s excit-ed to join the school she knew was right from her very first visit.

When former head coach Vann Stuede-man first brought her to Starkville, Purvis was im-pressed by the Bulldogs’ spacious facilities and the Mississippi State cam-pus. She took in a football game at Davis Wade Sta-dium and a men’s basket-ball game at Humphrey Coliseum — both “awe-some” experiences. By her junior year, she was ready to commit, picking the Bulldogs over Mis-souri and Tulsa.

“It just felt like home right when I pulled in,” Purvis said of Mississippi State.

This spring, she fol-lowed the Bulldogs’ stel-lar season from home, cheering on the team as it raced to a 25-3 start — and despairing with the players when the season was ended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I was getting excited to see how far they would go this year,” she said. “It was devastating. I didn’t know how to take it at first.”

Purvis said she was happy that softball is a fall sport in Missouri. Had she not gotten the chance to finish her senior sea-

son, “it would have been really sad,” she said. “I would have more than likely cried a lot.”

Purvis, who had a hit-ting lesson Sunday but won’t be able to swing without restriction until May, knows her rehab process is still ongoing. Pitching will follow in June, and Purvis knows she “can’t be afraid to go back and pitch” after be-ing injured in the circle.

And when she comes to Starkville in the fall — whether she’s ready for camp or not — she’ll get to experience the impact of the virus at the collegiate level. With the NCAA Di-vision I Council’s recent decision to extend an ex-tra year of eligibility to athletes in spring sports, Purvis knows she’ll have to work even harder for playing time on a full and talented Bulldogs roster.

But after hitting .701 with 12 home runs and striking out 179 hitters from the circle during her standout senior season, Purvis is fine with that.

“It’ll probably make it a little hard, but we just have to keep up the work ethic,” she said. “We can’t just let them say, ‘This person has this position.’ We’re still gonna get the chance. We just have to beat them out — work harder than they do.”

NASCAR

Larson suspended for using racial slur during virtual raceTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kyle Larson’s racial slur cost him his two pri-mary NASCAR support-ers. It likely will cost him his job soon.

McDonald’s and Cred-it One Bank ended their sponsorship of Larson on Monday, a day after he used the N-word during a live stream of a virtual race. The decision came hours after NASCAR and Chip Ganassi Racing suspended Larson indefi-nitely, his team doing so without pay.

Without funding from McDonald’s and Credit One Bank, Ganassi seem-ingly will be forced to dump Larson in favor of a different driver.

“We were extreme-ly disappointed and ap-palled to hear about this incident,” McDonald’s USA said in a statement. “The comments made by Kyle Larson are insen-sitive, offensive and not reflective of our inclusive values and will not be tol-erated.”

McDonald’s has part-nered with CGR for near-ly a decade and sponsors the team’s No. 42 Chev-rolet in the Cup Series.

Ending its relationship with Larson would make it next to impossible for Ganassi to stick with Lar-son behind the wheel.

Ross Chastain would be a likely replacement. Chastain is a Ganassi de-velopment driver who has been on loan to Roush Fenway Racing as an in-jury fill-in for Ryan New-man.

NASCAR ordered Lar-son, who is half Japanese, to complete a sensitivity training course before he can be eligible for rein-statement.

Larson apologized in a video posted on his social media accounts.

“I made a mistake, said the word that should nev-er, ever be said,” Larson said. “There is no excuse for that. I wasn’t raised that way. It is just an aw-ful thing to say. I feel very sorry for my family, my friends, my partners, the NASCAR community and especially the African American community.

“I understand the damage is probably unre-pairable and I own up to that. But I just want to let you all know how sorry I am and I hope everyone is staying safe during these

See LARSON, 2B

Courtesy of Julie JohanningSullivan High School senior Addison Purvis takes a swing during a home game against Union on Sept. 12 in Sullivan, Missouri. Purvis, a Mississippi State sign-ee, tore her left ACL less than a month later.

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com2B TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020

SudokuSudoku is a num-ber-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty spaces so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level increases from Monday to Sunday.

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Sudoku YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty spaces so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level increases from Monday to Sunday.

Log cabinWHATZIT ANSWER

LarsonContinued from Page 1B

crazy times.”Larson was compet-

ing in an iRacing event Sunday night when he appeared to lose commu-nication on his headset with his spotter. During a check of his microphone, he asked his spotter, “You can’t hear me?” That was followed by the N-word. The slur was directed at his spotter, who is white.

“The words that he chose to use are offensive and unacceptable,” Chip Ganassi Racing said. “As of this moment, we are suspending Kyle with-out pay while we work through this situation with all appropriate par-ties.”

Larson also was sus-pended indefinitely by iRacing for “offensive and inappropriate” language, but more significant dam-age to Larson’s future could come from spon-sors.

Credit One Bank de-nounced Larson’s “high-ly offensive language” at first and dumped the driver altogether three hours later. McDonald’s followed suit.

Chevrolet suspended its personal services rela-tionship with Larson “as

we do not tolerate this be-havior.”

One secondary spon-sor, Plan B Sales & Mar-keting, backed Larson, saying “we know he is an awesome young man that made a mistake and we are going to stand behind him 100% and help any way we can.”

Larson, whose grand-parents spent time in an interment camp in Cali-fornia during World War II, climbed from short-track racing into NA-SCAR through its “Drive for Diversity” program. He is the only driver of Japanese descent to win a major NASCAR race.

“NASCAR has made diversity and inclusion a priority and will not toler-ate the type of language used by Kyle Larson during Sunday’s iRacing event,” NASCAR said in a statement. The stock-car body added that its con-duct guidelines are clear and it will enforce them to “maintain an inclusive en-vironment for our entire industry and fan base.”

NASCAR in 2013 sus-pended Xfinity Series driver Jeremy Clements for using the same word Larson used while Cle-

ments was speaking to a reporter. Clements was reinstated after complet-ing a sensitivity training course and still competes.

Larson is the second driver in a week to draw scrutiny while using the online racing platform to fill time during the coro-navirus pandemic.

Bubba Wallace one week earlier “rage quit” an official NASCAR iRac-ing event televised live nationally, and his spon-sor fired him immedi-ately. Wallace had been wrecked, and, fed up, quit the game and admitted it was out of anger on Twit-ter. Blue-Emu, a topical pain reliever who had sponsored Wallace for the virtual race and has an association with him for real, then fired Wallace in a reply to his tweet.

Larson was parked during the race Wallace quit a week earlier by iRacing officials for inten-tionally wrecking another driver.

Larson, in his seventh full season racing at NA-SCAR’s top Cup level, is in the final year of his contract with Chip Ganas-si Racing. He was at the top of the list of a crowd-

ed free-agent field when the circuit was suspended four races into the season as sports stopped during the coronavirus crisis.

NASCAR quickly piv-oted to create an iRacing league of virtual racing that has engaged view-ers and set records for esports television view-ership. One of the draws of the platform is that drivers can link into one another on a live stream, where they banter, ar-gue, make jokes and dis-cuss the racing. Fans can eavesdrop through the gaming app Twitch.

Larson used the slur during a race for fun against drivers from vari-ous series. The event was not part of NASCAR’s offi-cial series.

Drivers in the chat im-mediately reacted to Lar-son’s use of the slur, with one alerting him, “Kyle, you’re talking to every-one, bud.” Others were in disbelief.

Larson has six career Cup wins and finished a career-best sixth in the standings last season. He is 27 and the married father of two young chil-dren.

Youth baseball leagues scrambling amid pandemicTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PITTSBURGH — The end to months of fundrais-ing, planning and practice ended with a press re-lease and tears.

Mike DeLuca envi-sioned his youngest son, John, capping his base-ball career the same way most 12-year-old All-Star squads from Monroeville, Pennsylvania, had for the last two decades: with a week spent playing teams from all over the country at Cooperstown Dreams Park in early August.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the United States and the shutdowns began. The sprawling complex near the Baseball Hall of Fame in central New York was no exception. Park offi-cials announced in March they had canceled the en-tire 2020 summer tourna-ment season.

When Mike DeLuca told his son, the boy cried.

“It’s devastating,” said DeLuca, who is also the team’s coach. “But it also is a hard lesson in life and unfortunately thou-sands upon thousands of 12-year-olds are learning this lesson right now. It’s still a kids’ game. They should always play like the cliche says: Play it like it’s your last game, because you never know.”

No one does.Youth sports leagues

and businesses all over the country are scram-bling, though baseball and softball are feeling imme-diate effects more acutely than most. Basketball and hockey seasons are over, their tournaments called off. Soccer runs year-round in many places. Football for many seems months away.

Baseball and softball had an estimated 4.5 mil-lion players between the ages of 6-12 in 2018, ac-cording to the Aspen In-stitute. Yet fields normal-ly filled with the familiar “ding” of aluminum bats this time of year now sit

silent — a particular sting as winter finally gives way to the warmth of spring.

“It’s like Mother Na-ture is mocking you,” said Lafe Hermansen, treasur-er of North Shore Little League in the northern Seattle suburbs.

Hermansen’s sons, ages 14 and 11, are trying to fill the void with games of catch in the yard and batting practice in the ga-rage. It will have to do for now even as their patience is being tested while they wait until at least May 11 — the date until which Little League Internation-al has (for now) suspend-ed all league activities.

President Donald Trump tweeted he hopes youth baseball returns “soon.” Soon enough to salvage some semblance of a season? That’s where

things start to get tricky.Even if federal guide-

lines limiting crowd size are eased, it doesn’t mean teams will sprint to the field to play. Some leagues are already offering re-funds to families wary of having their kids put back in a team setting.

Others are concerned about the potential finan-cial fallout.

The cost for return-ing sponsors in the Cap-itol Hill Little League in Washington, D.C., is $800. Most are small busi-nesses, many of which have been hit hard by the slowing economy. League president David Fox won-ders if those businesses would be better served asking for their donations back.

“That $800 might go to pay and, quite honestly, should go to pay people who need it rather than a logo on the back of a T-shirt,” Fox said.

Which might produce

a ripple effect a year from now. Capitol Hill LL needs to pay three different en-tities for field permits, an expensive proposition even for a league whose participation levels in-creased dramatically this year following the Wash-ington Nationals’ World Series triumph. A drop in sponsorship could curtail momentum.

“We couldn’t do any-thing else,” Fox said. “Couldn’t do tourna-ments. Couldn’t do any fun activities. We were actually starting a pretty robust fundraising effort. But we can’t do clinics, can’t pay beyond fields and equipment if we lose 15% to 20% of our spon-sors.”

The stakes are higher for Matt DeSantis, presi-dent and CEO of AC Base-

ball, which organizes baseball and softball tour-naments in Ohio, Pennsyl-vania, West Virginia and South Carolina.

With the calendar seemingly changing by the day, DeSantis and his handful of full-time em-ployees are scrambling to find a way to accom-modate more than 1,400 teams that registered to play this spring and sum-mer. He hopes the $2.2 trillion federal stimulus package helps him avoid layoffs.

DeSantis is offering teams scheduled to play in May the option to find a tournament later in the summer. While a Canadi-an club has bailed, no one else has taken him up on it.

“Nobody’s transfer-ring. They want to play,” he said.

Tournament teams represent the committed, but the heartbeat of lo-cal youth leagues are the

recreational players who might not play this year — and then never come back.

“These in-house kids, you go to them next year, they’ll be, ‘Hey, you dropped us last year,’” said Gary Sifkey, a board member with Montour Youth Baseball League in the Pittsburgh suburbs. “We’ve lost them to deck hockey, we’ve lost them to video games, we’ve lost them to soccer.”

Mike Glover, president of Central Perkiomen Youth Association north of Philadelphia, believes age 10 is the tipping point.

“When they get to 10, 11, the kids start to have choices,” he said. “There might be the most at-risk age group. In our case, the 12 year-olds, they want to play their last sea-son. They want to see it through.”

Central Perkiomen holds a “bat ceremony” every spring to honor kids graduating out of the program. For some, it will be the end of baseball.

A week in Cooper-stown was supposed to serve as that rite of pas-sage for John DeLuca and his teammates. Though the park is offering a chance to come back in the future, by next spring the Monroeville group will be teenagers, too old and too big to play on fields designed exclusive-ly for kids. They’re in the process of having their $17,000 entry fee refund-ed. Mike DeLuca found another tournament in South Carolina in early August. He’s holding out hope the lockdown will be over so he won’t have to disappoint his players yet again.

The coach and the fa-ther has already made one rule, however. No one is allowed to talk about Cooperstown anymore. What’s the point?

“We’re never getting back what we thought we were going to have,” DeLuca said. “We’re not.”

Contacting the Sports DepartmentIf you need to report game scores or statistics, you can call us at 662-327-2424 ext. 126. If you need to reach

sports editor Garrick Hodge, email him at ghodge@cdispatch.com. If you need to reach sports writer Ben Portnoy, email him at bportnoy@cdispatch.com or sports writer Theo DeRosa, email him at tderosa@cdispatch.com.

Game Coverage / ResultsHigh school football coaches who don’t speak to a reporter from The Dispatch are asked to email information

to the sports department from their games. The Dispatch will include its prep football coverage in Sunday’s edition, so we will contact coaches Friday night or Saturday to get details. Coaches, please let us know what is the best time for us to contact you.

“We’re never getting back what we thought we were going to have. We’re not.”

Mike DeLuca

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020 3B

Comics & PuzzlesDear AbbyDILBERT

ZITS

GARFIELD

CANDORVILLE

BABY BLUES

BEETLE BAILEY

MALLARD FILLMORE

HoroscopesTODAY’S BIRTHDAY (April

14). This year offers the opportunity to master the art of shifting gears. There will be fast action in the next six weeks and then a period of slower pacing as you take in beauty, relax, ponder and review. New people and projects come into your life in July. There’s a chance to plug into a group that’s making changes in the world. Aries and Gemini adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 4, 3, 33, 25 and 15.

ARIES (March 21-April 19). You know who you want to be. Mold your aspirations. Don’t let them be dictated by the friends

who just happen to show up. Seek the influencers you want to be influenced by.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). As for the interesting person who just happens to cross your path, this is no mistake. Nor will it happen again soon. Seize the opportunity to connect.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). You don’t like to be bossed around by anyone, even your-self. So you rebel against all dictates, even your own. It will take creativity to get yourself to enact discipline.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). Do you have the feeling that your moment is coming? You’re

absolutely right about that. Don’t worry, there’s still time to prepare, and you know best what to do to get ready.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). By giving a problem too much focus, you’re apt to overanalyze. Ask for another perspective. Someone else will see what’s simple about it. There’s really only one thing to fix here.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). The urgent call is to enjoy what you most would like to. Don’t wait for permission; you don’t need it at all. You probably don’t even need money. All you need is a strong enough desire.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). You’ve thought something through and now it’s time to share. Yours will be the first word, the last word and the word that everyone remembers. Much will get better because you decided to speak up.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Loosen your grip. There is no way to be in total control, and trying to grasp too firmly cuts off circulation and your ability to be flexible and to feel and respond to the nuances of the moment.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Preparation is the most significant contributor to the success of your projects. Take twice the time you think you’ll need. As for the resources, keep them simple so you have fewer things of which to keep track.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Separations that occur for logistical reasons may be un-avoidable. But separations that occur because of conflicting attitudes are unnecessary and should be sorted.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). People will naturally align themselves in the order of status. You’ll recognize the psy-chology and humanity operating here and quite successfully play the game.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). You’ll put deep thought into your decisions and exercise free will at every corner. You don’t mind being led, but only by those whom you choose to follow.

SOLUTION:Broad minded

FAMILY CIRCUS

DEAR ABBY: My 20-year-old daughter

refuses to get her driver’s license. She took the learn-er’s permit test four times when she was 16, failed it each time and gave up. She goes to college online and has a job at the local store. Next week she is going to be pro-moted to assistant manager.

I don’t work, but I’m tired of driving her around. We live in a small town that has no public transporta-tion. Every time her father or I mention getting her license, she says, “Don’t start” or, “I don’t want to talk about it!” She doesn’t date, but is very involved in church. She has her own phone, which she pays for, and also pays for gas. She’s responsible in every way — she just REFUSES to drive! HELP! — TIRED OF BEING A TAXI MOM

DEAR TIRED: Your 20-year-old daughter is a smart cookie. Unlike you, she doesn’t have to worry about car payments, insurance premiums or the cost of parking. As long as you agree to chauffeur her around, she isn’t going to provide her own transportation. I suggest you en-courage her to get a bicycle. And after four years, it’s time for her to take the driver’s test again.

DEAR ABBY: My husband

and I have been married nine years and have two major issues in our marriage:

1. He feels I spend too much money.

2. I think he spends too much time away from home doing things he wants to do.

We have fallen into this cycle of him being away from home, so I spend money, which results in

him spending more time away from home. Should we have separate bank accounts? Should I make him cancel some of his weekly activities? — STRUG-GLING IN ST. LOUIS

DEAR STRUGGLING: Sepa-rate bank accounts might be a good idea, provided you don’t use yours to mask the fact that you’re spending more than you should. As to “making” your hus-band cancel some of his weekly activities, I don’t think it would work to your benefit.

A better solution/investment would be for the two of you to talk this out in the office of a licensed marriage and family counselor, because it appears you’re spending as a way to punish your husband for his absence, which is not only not constructive but destructive. Doing activities outside the home TOGETHER might also be helpful.

DEAR ABBY: My former spouse, the father of our adult daughters, recently passed. He will be cremated. Although he did not remarry, I did. Our youngest daughter has made all the burial arrangements.

My ex and I did not commu-nicate much after the divorce. What is my role as mother? Do I send flowers, greet attendees, as if we were still together? We were married almost 30 years. — WHAT SHOULD I DO?

DEAR WHAT SHOULD I DO: Your role as the mother is to support your daughters and the rest of the family. If your daugh-ters want you there, be there for them. Greet anyone you know politely and thank them for being there for “the family.” If you wish to send flowers, by all means do so. But beyond that, nothing more is required of you.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Abby shares more than 100 of her favorite recipes in two booklets: “Abby’s Favorite Rec-ipes” and “More Favorite Rec-ipes by Dear Abby.” Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $16 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Cookbooklet Set, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

Dear Abby

Athletes completing bans get unexpected chance at OlympicsTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Athletes completing doping bans over the next year will be eligible to compete in the postponed Tokyo Olympics, an unin-tended effect of the coro-navirus pandemic that has some crying foul.

Turkish runner Gamze Bulut, for example, will now have plenty of time to qualify for a games she likely would have missed had they gone ahead as scheduled.

“It doesn’t seem like a fair punishment,” Irish race walker Brendan Boyce told The Associat-ed Press in a phone inter-view. “They haven’t really missed the events they were supposed to miss.”

The 2020 Olympics were officially postponed last month for one year, with the opening cere-mony now set for July 23, 2021.

Bulut originally won silver in the 1,500 meters at the 2012 London Olym-pics but was stripped of her medal because of ir-regularities in her biolog-ical passport, which mon-itors an athlete’s blood profile. She was given a four-year ban that began in 2016 and expires on May 29 — giving her an unexpected full year to qualify for Tokyo.

“I’m trying my best to (attend) the Olympics,” the 27-year-old runner said. “I hope I can join.”

The Athletics Integ-rity Unit estimates that

about 40 of the 200 or so banned track and field athletes who stand to gain from the Olympic postponement are inter-national-level competi-tors. The AIU maintains a global list of track ath-letes banned for doping violations.

More than 11,000 ath-letes are expected to com-pete in 33 sports in Tokyo, with about 2,000 of them in track and field.

Boyce, a two-time Olympian who has qual-ified for Tokyo, said re-strictions on the number of competitors could make it harder for clean athletes to earn places.

“I wouldn’t be too hap-py now if I lost an Olympic spot because of an anom-aly like what’s going on at

the minute,” Boyce said.The Irishman protest-

ed on social media but stopped short of filing any formal complaints. Brit-ish long-distance runner and Tokyo hopeful Lily Partridge agreed.

“I don’t believe in second chances with re-gards to serious doping offenses unless you pro-vide serious assistance to anti-doping authorities and even then I don’t be-lieve you should have the privilege of being able to compete and earn money from the sport,” Partridge told the AP.

However, World An-ti-Doping Agency Pres-ident Witold Banka said the unforeseen health cri-sis doesn’t mean author-ities can “cherry-pick”

when athletes have com-pleted their bans.

“While an athlete can-not choose when he or she would like to be ineligible, an (anti-doping organiza-tion) cannot either,” Ban-ka said. “This is entirely consistent with principles of natural justice and oth-er areas of the law as it relates to sports or even criminal activity. When an offender has done the time, the sentence is con-sidered to be served.”

Sebastian Coe, the Olympic great who is now president of World Ath-letics, was less definitive in comments shortly af-ter the games were post-poned.

“This is something we will need to look at,” Coe said. “I know it’s some-

thing the Athletics Integ-rity Unit, and I’m sure all the other agencies out there in concert with our sports, will need to think about, and that will just be another issue in an overflowing inbox at the moment.”

Athletes who have al-ready qualified for Tokyo have been assured that they’ll keep their spots as future qualification deci-sions unfold.

Among notable ath-letes due to come off doping bans are Polish weightlifter Tomasz Ziel-inski and Irish boxer Mi-chael O’Reilly.

Boyce, the race walk-er, said it would be diffi-cult for an Irish athlete to compete after a doping ban.

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com4B TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020

Ella Mae GuyMrs. Ella Mae Guy, 85, of Macon, MS passed

away on April 11, 2020. A private graveside service was held on

Tuesday, April 14, at Salem Cemetery. Rev. Glenn Miller officiated. Memorials are requested to be sent to the Salem Cemetery Fund, 23 Hunter Street, Macon, MS 39341. Cockrell Funeral Home is honored to have been entrusted with the service arrangements.

Ella Mae Guy was born in Denver Colorado to the late John Schwindt and Freda Kreig Schwindt on December 11, 1934. She grew up and attended school in Denver where she loved to ice skate with her sister. She met and married Ikey Guy while he was serving in the U.S. Air Force near Denver. They made their home in Denver for six years before moving to Ikey’s hometown of Macon, MS where they lived for the rest of their lives. Ella worked at the Macon Police Department and at the Piggly-Wiggly grocery store for several years before going to work at Noxubee General Hospital, from which she retired after 32 years. She enjoyed shopping, cooking and playing Bunko with her friends. She was dearly loved by all of her family and was called “Maw Ella” by her grand- and great-grandchildren. Ella was a member of Salem United Methodist Church near Macon.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; and one grandson, Brennan Guy.

Ella Mae Guy is survived by her two sons, Pastor Jimmy Guy (Sheila) of Macon and Rodney Guy (Debbie) of Westover, Al; three grandchildren, Brad Guy, Tyler Guy and Bryan Guy; and seven great-grandchildren, Taylor Guy, Spencer Guy, Colton Guy, Clara Guy, Carlee Guy, Will Guy and Whitleigh Guy.

The family would like to thank Dr. Medlin and his staff as well as Noxubee County Nursing Home staff for the great care that our mother and grandmother received during her stay. Also, we would like to thank Dr. Glen Peters and Winston County Nursing Home staff for their care during her short stay.

Paid Obituary - Cockrell Funeral Home

AREA OBITUARIES

BY TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer

DETROIT — Interstates and city streets are empty and cars are quarantined in their owners’ garages, so consumer advocates argue that it only makes sense for auto insurance rates to reflect that.

In the states of Washington and New York, the number of traffic crashes reported to state police fell about 30 percent in March compared with a year ago, as the states were on lockdown for part of the month to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Other states are reporting similar declines in traffic and crashes, and consumer advocates are calling on insurance companies to cut premiums or give refunds by a like amount.

Some companies have responded, but the Con-sumer Federation of America reports that dis-counts may be too small and aren’t being applied evenly.

Many insurance premiums are based on driv-ing 1,000 miles per month, but customers may be driving only one-tenth of that, the federation said.

“The risk exposure is not nearly the same now as when the policy was first priced,” Doug Hell-er, an insurance expert with the federation, said Monday.

Companies that sell 82 percent of the auto pol-icies in the U.S. have announced refunds or cred-its to drivers worth more than $6.5 billion during the next two months, the federation said.

Some, like State Farm, the country’s largest auto insurer, are giving credits starting in June that amount to a 25 percent reduction in bills from March 20 through May 31. That’s about $20 per month per vehicle, the company says.

That’s the kind of immediate relief that all com-panies should offer because so many people have lost their jobs due to stay-at-home orders from state governments, according to the federation. Yet many are offering only 15 percent discounts and one, Geico, won’t get the money to customers until their policies are renewed.

Lockdowns cut driving and crashes, bring insurance discounts

COMMERCIAL DISPATCH OBITUARY POLICYObituaries with basic informa-tion including visitation and service times, are provided free of charge. Extended obituaries with a photograph, detailed biographical informa-tion and other details families may wish to include, are avail-able for a fee. Obituaries must be submitted through funeral homes unless the deceased’s body has been donated to science. If the deceased’s body was donated to science, the family must provide official proof of death. Please submit all obituaries on the form provided by The Commercial Dispatch. Free notices must be submitted to the newspaper no later than 3 p.m. the day prior for publication Tuesday through Friday; no later than 4 p.m. Saturday for the Sunday edition; and no later than 7:30 a.m. for the Monday edition. Incomplete notices must be re-ceived no later than 7:30 a.m. for the Monday through Friday editions. Paid notices must be finalized by 3 p.m. for inclusion the next day Monday through Thursday; and on Friday by 3 p.m. for Sunday and Monday publication. For more informa-tion, call 662-328-2471.

Geneva AndersonKENNEDY, Ala. —

Geneva Rushing Ander-son, 90, died April 10, 2020, at Baptist Memo-rial Hospital-Golden Triangle.

A private graveside service was a 2 p.m. Monday, at Kennedy City Cemetery, with the Rev. Kenneth Stough officiating. Dowdle Funeral Home of Mill-port was in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Anderson was born July 7, 1929, to the

late Franklin “Dock” and Dessie Cooper Rushing. She was formerly employed with Westinghouse and Mc-Coy Manufacturing.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, James W. Anderson; two brothers; and three sisters.

She is survived by her children, Jimmy D. Anderson, Ardeth Blanton, Shirley Porter and Mary Ann For-ster; siblings, Mary Weathers and Virgin-ia Henderson; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Faye BrownMACON — Faye

Brown, 59, died April 11, 2020.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announce by Carter’s Funeral Services of Macon.

Charles Worlow Jr. ABERDEEN —

Charles Lee Worlow Jr., died April 12, 2020, at North Mississippi Medi-cal Center in Tupelo.

Family services will be held at St. Mark United Methodist Church, with the Rev. Frank Davis officiating. Burial will follow in Beeks Cemetery in Ath-ens. Tisdale-Lann Me-morial Funeral Home of Aberdeen is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Worlow was born June 3, 1945, in

Sedgewick, Arkansas, to the late Charles Lee Worlow Sr. and Thel-ma Frye Worlow. He was a member of St. Mark United Methodist Church.

In addition to his par-ents, he was preceded in death by his brother, Bill Worlow.

He is survived by his wife, Rebecca Roberts Worlow; and children Terrie Lynn Worlow and Sherrie Lee Worlow.

Martin Rice COLUMBUS — Mar-

tin Rice, 66, died April 12, 2020, in Aliceville, Alabama.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Lown-des Funeral Home of Columbus.

Claude KellerWEST POINT —

Claude Allen Keller, 81, died April 8, 2020, at his residence.

A private graveside service will be held at Memorial Gardens Cemetery, with the Rev. Terry Thrun officiat-ing. Robinson Funeral Home of West Point is in charge of arrange-ments.

Mr. Keller was born Feb. 2, 1939, to the late Tom W. Keller Sr. and Flora Perkins Keller.

In addition to his par-ents, he was preceded in death by his siblings, Doreatha Dot Fairchild, Tom Keller Jr., Harold Dean Keller and Ken-

neth Ray Keller. He is survived by his

siblings, Lewis James Keller or Corinth and Vadie Smith of West Point.

Pallbearers will be Greg Keller, Gene Keller, Gene Swindol, Glen Cunningham, John Cunningham, Mike Pearson and Ben Davis.

Memorial may be made to West Point Clay County Animal Shelter, 5122 Old Tibbee Road, West Point, MS 39773 or Bible Baptist Church, 58 Prairieview Ave. West Point, MS 39773.

BY STEFANIE DAZIO, FRANKLIN BRICENO AND MICHAEL TARM The Associated Press

CHICAGO — The coronavirus pandemic that has crippled big-box retailers and mom and pop shops worldwide may be making a dent in illicit business, too.

In Chicago, one of America’s most violent cities, drug arrests have plummeted 42 percent in the weeks since the city shut down, compared with the same period last year. Part of that decrease, some criminal law-yers say, is that drug dealers have no choice but to wait out the economic slump.

“The feedback I’m getting is that they aren’t able to move, to sell any-thing anywhere,” said Joseph Lopez, a criminal lawyer in Chicago who represents reputed drug dealers.

Overall, Chicago’s crime de-clined 10 percent after the pan-demic struck, a trend playing out globally as cities report stunning crime drops in the weeks since mea-sures were put into place to slow the spread of the virus. Even among re-gions that have the highest levels of violence outside a war zone, fewer people are being killed and fewer

robberies are taking place. Still, law enforcement officials

worry about a surge of unreported domestic violence, and what hap-pens when restrictions lift — or go on too long.

It’s rare for a city to see a dou-ble-digit drop in crime, even over a much longer period. During New York City’s 1990s crime decline, one of the biggest turnarounds in American history, crime dropped about 40 percent over three years. That makes the drop-offs occurring now — in a period of just a couple of weeks — even more seismic.

Across Latin America, crime is down to levels unseen in decades.

“Killings are down, and the gang-sters aren’t harassing so much,’’ Eduardo Perdomo, a 47-year-old construction worker, said while getting off a bus in San Salvador. “I think they’re afraid of catching the virus, and they aren’t going out.’’

El Salvador reported an average of two killings a day last month, down from a peak of 600 a day a few years ago.

Much of the decrease has taken place because of tougher security policies and gang truces. But the imposition of near-total limits on

movement is likely driving it down further, according to analysts and national statistics.

In Peru, where crime levels fell 84 percent last month, Lima morti-cian Raúl González usually has as many as 15 bodies a day — many are homicide victims. This week he napped on a bench after six hours without a client.

“There are almost no killings or car accidents these days,’’ González said.

In South Africa, police reported a stunning decline during their first week of lockdown measures. Police Minister Bheki Cele said reported rapes were down from 700 to 101 over the same period last year. Se-rious assault cases plummeted from 2,673 to 456, and murders fell from 326 to 94.

The U.S. virus epicenter in New York saw major crimes — murder, rape, robbery, burglary, assault, grand larceny and car theft — de-crease by 12 percent from Febru-ary to March. In Los Angeles, 2020 key crimes statistics were consis-tent with last year’s figures until the week of March 15, when they dropped by 30 percent.

“There’s a lot fewer opportunities for criminals to take advantage of,” said Joe Giacalone, a former New York Police Department sergeant who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “Most burglars, they wait for you to leave the house.”

Crime drops around the world as COVID-19 keeps people insideIn Chicago, one of America’s most violent cities, drug arrests have plummeted 42 percent in the weeks since the city shut down due to virus

Consumer Federation of America: Many insurance premiums are based on driving 1,000 miles per month, but customers may be driving only one-tenth of that

Send in your church event!Email editorialassistant@cdispatch.com

Subject: Religious brief

BY MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP Chief Medical Writer

Scientists in Brazil have stopped part of a study of a malaria drug touted as a possible coro-navirus treatment after heart rhythm problems developed in one-quarter of people given the higher of two doses being tested.

Chloroquine and a newer, similar drug called hydroxychloroquine, have been pushed by President Donald Trump after some very small, early tests sug-gested the drugs might curb the virus from enter-ing cells. But the drugs have long been known to have potentially serious

side effects, including al-tering the heartbeat in a way that could lead to sud-den death.

The Brazilian study, in the Amazonian city of Manaus, had planned to enroll 440 severely ill COVID-19 patients to test two doses of chloroquine, but researchers reported results after only 81 had been treated.

One-fourth of those assigned to get 600 mil-ligrams twice a day for 10 days developed heart rhythm problems, and trends suggested more deaths were occurring in that group, so scientists stopped that part of the study.

The other group was

given 450 milligrams twice a day on the first day then once a day for four more days. That is clos-er to what’s being tried in some other studies in-cluding some in the Unit-ed States. It’s too soon to know whether that will prove safe or effective; the Brazil study had no com-parison group that was getting no treatment.

Only one participant in the Brazil study had no signs of the virus in throat swabs after treatment, re-searchers noted.

The results from the Brazil study were post-ed on a research website and have not yet been re-viewed by other scientists.

Complicating matters

is that all patients in the study also received two antibiotics, ceftriaxone and azithromycin. The lat-ter also can have side ef-fects on the heart. Trump has touted the hydroxy-chloroquine-azithromycin combination.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly touted the benefits of chlo-roquine and azithromycin without evidence. He said at one point he heard reports of 100 percent effectiveness when ad-ministered in the correct dosages, zeroed tariffs for import of the drugs, and late last month announced military labs were ramp-ing up their chloroquine production.

Heart woes spur partial stop of malaria drug study for virus

Eula Mae HarlessServices:

A private family graveside service will be held.

Pineview Memory Gardens2nd. Ave. North Location

Lenore PratherIncomplete

2nd. Ave. North Location

memorialgunterpeel.com

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020 5B

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LEGALS

Legal Notices

IN THE CHANCERY COURT OFLOWNDES COUNTY, MISSIS-SIPPI

IN RE: ESTATE OF BESSIE WILLBUTLER, DECEASED

JERRY O. BUTLER, EXECUTOR

CAUSE NO.: 2020-00063-RPF

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

STATE OF MISSISSIPPICOUNTY OF LOWNDES

Letters Testamentary havebeen granted and issued to theundersigned upon the Estate ofBESSIE WILL BUTLER, De-ceased, by the Chancery Courtof Lowndes County, Missis-sippi, on the 1st day of April,A.D., 2020. This is to give no-tice to all persons havingclaims against said estate toProbate and Register samewith the Chancery Clerk ofLowndes County, Mississippi,within ninety (90) days fromthis date. A failure to so Pro-bate and Register said claimwill forever bar the same.

This the 1st day of April 2020.

Jerry O. ButlerJERRY O. BUTLER

PUBLISH: 4/7, 4/14, &4/21/2020

STATE OF MISSISSIPPIOKTIBBEHA COUNTY

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS

SIGNALIZATION OF THE INTER-SECTION OF POOHOUSE ROADAND OLD HWY NO. 25OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, MISSIS-SIPPI

Sealed or electronic bids willbe received by the Board of Su-pervisors of Oktibbeha County,Mississippi at the OktibbehaCounty Court House, 108 EastMain Street Starkville, Missis-sippi 39759 until 10:00 A.M.Tuesday, May 5th, 2020 forconstruction of Signalization ofthe Intersection of PoorhouseRoad and Old Hwy No. 25 atwhich time they will be publiclyopened and read aloud.

Items of work include installa-tion of signal lights, pedestals,pedestal foundations, control-lers, traffic loop, etc. for thesignalization of the intersec-tion.

Proposals shall be good for aperiod of 45 day from date ofsigning.

Plans and specifications arebeing made available via pa-per or digital copy. Plan Hold-ers are required to log-in or re-gister for an account to view ororder bid documents atwww.pritchardengineeringplans.com. Bid documents are non-refundable and must be pur-chased through the website.Questions regarding website re-gistration and online ordersplease contact Plan House at662-407-0193. For questionsrelated to the contract docu-ments contact the office ofPritchard Engineering, Inc at(662) 324-2205, 100 MileyRoad, Starkville, Mississippi39759. No partial sets of draw-ings of project manuals will beissued.

Proposal shall be submitted onBid Forms provided with thespecifications. Bids may besubmitted in person, or forthose interested, bids can beelectronically submitted atwww.pritchardengineeringplans.com under the project page. Nooral, telegraphic, telephonic, ore-mail proposals will be con-sidered. For sealed bids, thecurrent Certificate of Respons-ibility Number of the biddershall appear on the outside ofeach sealed envelope contain-ing a proposal, said envelopebeing plainly marked Bid forSignalization of the Intersec-tion of Poorhouse Road andOld Hwy No. 25. If submittingelectronically, please includethis information on a coverpage with your bid submission.

Each Bid must be accompan-ied by a bid bond/security de-posit or certified check in anamount equal to 5% of the bid,payable to Oktibbeha Countyas bid security. In the eventthat an electronic bid is submit-ted, a copy of the bid bondmust be included with the sub-mission. If submitting electron-ically, a hard copy of all biddocuments must be providedwithin 3 business days if re-quested after the bid opening.

John Montgomery, PresidentOktibbeha County Board of Su-pervisors

Publish Dates: April 7, 2020and April 14, 2020

UNITED STATES DISTRICTCOURTSOUTHERN DISTRICT OFALABAMASOUTHERN DIVISION

IN THE MATTER OF COOPERMARINE & TIMBERLANDS COR-PORATION, AS OWNER PROHAC VICE AND OPERATOR, OFTHE BARGE BIG 505, OFFICIALNO. 110343, PRAYING FOR EX-ONERATION FROM OR LIMITA-TION OF LIABILITY

CIVIL ACTION NO. 20-170

NOTICE TO CLAIMANTS OF AC-TION BROUGHT FOR EXONERA-TION FROM OR LIMITATION OFLIABILITY.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN thatCooper Marine & TimberlandsCorporation (“CMT”) as ownerpro hac vice/operator of theBarge BIG 505 has filed aComplaint pursuant to the pro-visions of 46 U.S.C. §30511forexoneration from or limitationof liability of all claims for anyloss, destruction or damagearising out of the alleged break-ing away of the Barge BIG 505on or about February 7, 2020,as more fully described inCMT’s Complaint.

All persons having such claimsmust file their respectiveclaims, as provided in Rule F ofthe Supplemental Rules forCertain Admiralty and MaritimeClaims of the Federal Rules ofCivil Procedure, with the Clerkof the United States DistrictCourt, Southern District ofAlabama, 155 St. JosephStreet, Mobile, AL 36602, andmust serve a copy thereof oncounsel for CMT on or beforethe 5th day of June, 2020, orbe defaulted.

If any claimant desires to con-test either the right to exonera-tion from or the right to limita-tion of liability, he shall file andserve on counsel for CMT ananswer to the Complaint on orbefore the aforesaid date un-less his claim has included ananswer so designated or be de-faulted.

Mobile, Alabama, this 9th dayof April, 2020.

CHARLES R. DIARD, JR.,CLERK OF COURT.By: Tammy Thornton,Deputy Clerk(SEAL)

Attorneys for Complainant inLimitation, Cooper Marine &Timberlands Corporation:DONALD C. RADCLIFF,Brady Radcliff & Brown, LLP,61 Saint Joseph Street,Mobile, AL 36602,Telephone: 251-405-0077Email:dradcliff@brblawyers.com

PUBLISH: 4/14, 4/21, 4/28,& 5/5/2020

Legal Notices

UNITED STATES DISTRICTCOURTSOUTHERN DISTRICT OFALABAMASOUTHERN DIVISION

IN THE MATTER OF COOPERMARINE & TIMBERLANDS COR-PORATION, AS OWNER PROHAC VICE AND OPERATOR, OFTHE BARGE BIG 505, OFFICIALNO. 110343, PRAYING FOR EX-ONERATION FROM OR LIMITA-TION OF LIABILITY

CIVIL ACTION NO. 20-170

NOTICE TO CLAIMANTS OF AC-TION BROUGHT FOR EXONERA-TION FROM OR LIMITATION OFLIABILITY.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN thatCooper Marine & TimberlandsCorporation (“CMT”) as ownerpro hac vice/operator of theBarge BIG 505 has filed aComplaint pursuant to the pro-visions of 46 U.S.C. §30511forexoneration from or limitationof liability of all claims for anyloss, destruction or damagearising out of the alleged break-ing away of the Barge BIG 505on or about February 7, 2020,as more fully described inCMT’s Complaint.

All persons having such claimsmust file their respectiveclaims, as provided in Rule F ofthe Supplemental Rules forCertain Admiralty and MaritimeClaims of the Federal Rules ofCivil Procedure, with the Clerkof the United States DistrictCourt, Southern District ofAlabama, 155 St. JosephStreet, Mobile, AL 36602, andmust serve a copy thereof oncounsel for CMT on or beforethe 5th day of June, 2020, orbe defaulted.

If any claimant desires to con-test either the right to exonera-tion from or the right to limita-tion of liability, he shall file andserve on counsel for CMT ananswer to the Complaint on orbefore the aforesaid date un-less his claim has included ananswer so designated or be de-faulted.

Mobile, Alabama, this 9th dayof April, 2020.

CHARLES R. DIARD, JR.,CLERK OF COURT.By: Tammy Thornton,Deputy Clerk(SEAL)

Attorneys for Complainant inLimitation, Cooper Marine &Timberlands Corporation:DONALD C. RADCLIFF,Brady Radcliff & Brown, LLP,61 Saint Joseph Street,Mobile, AL 36602,Telephone: 251-405-0077Email:dradcliff@brblawyers.com

PUBLISH: 4/14, 4/21, 4/28,& 5/5/2020

IN THE CHANCERY COURT OFLOWNDES COUNTY, MISSIS-SIPPI

IN THE MATTER OF THE ES-TATE OF MILDRED H. BANK-HEAD, DECEASED

LEON BANKHEAD, EXECUTOR

CAUSE NO. 2020 – 0061-DE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Letters Testamentary havebeen granted and issued to LE-ON BANKHEAD, Executor of theEstate of MILDRED H. BANK-HEAD, deceased, by the Chan-cery Court of Lowndes County,Mississippi, on the 23rd day ofMarch, 2020. This is to givenotice to all persons havingclaims against said estate toProbate and Register samewith the Chancery Clerk ofLowndes County, Mississippi,within ninety (90) days fromthis date. A failure to so Pro-bate and Register said claimwill forever bar the same.

THIS the 23rd day of March,2020.

/s/ Leon BankheadLEON BANKHEAD, Executor

PUBLISH: 3/31, 4/7, &4/14/2020

Mississippi University for Wo-men

Notice of Proposed SoleSource Purchase 20-003

Mississippi University for Wo-men anticipates purchasing theitem(s) listed below as a solesource purchase.

Commodity or commodities tobe purchased:

GSI AudioStar Pro Clinical Two-Channel Audiometer Version 2with DD45, B81 and IP30 in-sert phones

Radioear 90db Wall/Cornermount passive speaker pairW/GSI cable

GSI Tympstar Pro

Conditioned Play InnovationsDual System VRA PRO withPlushy Characters - chosen atrandom Works with GSI ASPand new ASP (Two side units,small nonanimated center toy,wireless remote)Conditioned Play InnovationsHard Wired option for originalASP (25’ wire to run from ASPto one side unit)

GSI Corti DPOAE Screening Unit+ Cradle

Audioscan Verifit 2 ClinicalREM/HIT

Etymonic Design NOAH Module

Audioscan/Verifit/Axiom ProbeTubes-40/pk

https://www.muw.edu/re-sources/purchasing/bids

PUBLISH: 4/7 & 4/14/2020

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS

1.1 PROJECT INFORMATION

A. Notice to Bidders: Qualifiedbidders may submit bids forproject as described in thisDocument. Submit bids accord-ing to the Instructions to Bid-ders.

B. Project Identification: Missis-sippi University for Women,Callaway Hall Flooring Replace-ment, Architect’s Project num-ber 20000

1. Project Location: Missis-sippi University for Women1100 College StreetColumbus, MS

C. Owner: Mississippi Uni-versity for Women1100 College StreetColumbus, Mississippi 39701

1. Owner's Representative:Jody Kennedy, Physical PlantDirector

D. Architect: Major Design Stu-dio, PLLC1204 2nd Avenue NorthColumbus, Mississippi 39701Major Andrews IV, AIA, PrincipalRyan Ashford, Sr. Senior Asso-ciate/ Senior Project Manager

E. Project Description: Flooringreplacement consists of asbes-tos tile removal and carpet re-moval and new flooring in-stalled on three floors.

F. Construction Contract: Bidswill be received for the follow-ing Work:

1. General Contract (selectedtrades). Floor installer and As-bestos removal.

1.2 BID SUBMITTAL AND OPEN-ING

A. Owner will receive sealedlump sum bids until the bidtime and date at the locationgiven below. Owner will con-sider bids prepared in compli-ance with the Instructions toBidders issued by Owner, anddelivered as follows:

1. Bid Date: May 7, 2020

2. Bid Time: 2:00 p.m., localtime.

3. Location: Electronic Bidding

B. Bids will be thereafter pub-licly opened and read aloud.

1.3 BID SECURITY

A. Bid security shall be submit-ted with each bid in theamount of five percent (5%) ofthe bid amount. No bids maybe withdrawn for a period ofsixty (60) days after opening ofbids. Owner reserves the rightto reject any and all bids and towaive informalities and irregu-larities.

1.4 PREBID MEETING

A. Prebid Meeting: A Prebidmeeting for all bidders will beheld at the online at, Thursday,April 30, 2020 at 10:00 a.m.local time. Prospective primebidders are requested to at-tend online.

1. Bidders' Questions: Archi-tect will provide responses atPrebid conference to bidders'questions received up to (2)two business days prior to con-ference.

1.5 DOCUMENTS

A. Printed Procurement andContracting Documents: April10, 2020, through Plan HousePrinting. Those interested inviewing or obtaining docu-ments are required to registerfor an account at majordesign-studioplans.com. Bid docu-ments are non-refundable, butthey must be purchasedthrough the website. Checksshould be made payable to Ma-jor Design Studio and mailed toPlan House Printing, 607 WestMain Street, Tupelo, MS38804. Questions regardingwebsite registration and onlineorders should be directed toPlan House Printing at (662)407-0193. Only complete setsof documents will be issued.

1. A Non-Refundable deposit of$100.00 per copy made pay-able to Plan House Printing.

B. Viewing Procurement andContracting Documents: Exam-ine after April 10, 2020 at thelocations below:

1. Online Access is availableand pickup only is available atOffice of Plan House Printing,601.336.6378 or662.407.0193.

1.6 TIME OF COMPLETION

A. Successful bidder shall be-gin the Work on receipt of theNotice to Proceed and shallcomplete the Work within theContract Time.

1.7 BIDDER'S QUALIFICATIONS

A. Bidders must be properly li-censed under the laws govern-ing their respective trades andbe able to obtain insuranceand bonds required for theWork. A Performance Bond,separate Labor and MaterialPayment Bond, and Insurancein a form acceptable to Ownerwill be required of the success-ful Bidder.

1.8 NOTIFICATION

A. This Advertisement for Bidsdocument is issued by Mr.Mark Ellard, Vice President ofAdministration and CFO- Mis-sissippi University for Women.

B. Dates of Publication:April 10, 2020April 14, 2020

Legal Notices

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS

1.1 PROJECT INFORMATION

A. Notice to Bidders: Qualifiedbidders may submit bids forproject as described in thisDocument. Submit bids accord-ing to the Instructions to Bid-ders.

B. Project Identification: Missis-sippi University for Women,Callaway Hall Flooring Replace-ment, Architect’s Project num-ber 20000

1. Project Location: Missis-sippi University for Women1100 College StreetColumbus, MS

C. Owner: Mississippi Uni-versity for Women1100 College StreetColumbus, Mississippi 39701

1. Owner's Representative:Jody Kennedy, Physical PlantDirector

D. Architect: Major Design Stu-dio, PLLC1204 2nd Avenue NorthColumbus, Mississippi 39701Major Andrews IV, AIA, PrincipalRyan Ashford, Sr. Senior Asso-ciate/ Senior Project Manager

E. Project Description: Flooringreplacement consists of asbes-tos tile removal and carpet re-moval and new flooring in-stalled on three floors.

F. Construction Contract: Bidswill be received for the follow-ing Work:

1. General Contract (selectedtrades). Floor installer and As-bestos removal.

1.2 BID SUBMITTAL AND OPEN-ING

A. Owner will receive sealedlump sum bids until the bidtime and date at the locationgiven below. Owner will con-sider bids prepared in compli-ance with the Instructions toBidders issued by Owner, anddelivered as follows:

1. Bid Date: May 7, 2020

2. Bid Time: 2:00 p.m., localtime.

3. Location: Electronic Bidding

B. Bids will be thereafter pub-licly opened and read aloud.

1.3 BID SECURITY

A. Bid security shall be submit-ted with each bid in theamount of five percent (5%) ofthe bid amount. No bids maybe withdrawn for a period ofsixty (60) days after opening ofbids. Owner reserves the rightto reject any and all bids and towaive informalities and irregu-larities.

1.4 PREBID MEETING

A. Prebid Meeting: A Prebidmeeting for all bidders will beheld at the online at, Thursday,April 30, 2020 at 10:00 a.m.local time. Prospective primebidders are requested to at-tend online.

1. Bidders' Questions: Archi-tect will provide responses atPrebid conference to bidders'questions received up to (2)two business days prior to con-ference.

1.5 DOCUMENTS

A. Printed Procurement andContracting Documents: April10, 2020, through Plan HousePrinting. Those interested inviewing or obtaining docu-ments are required to registerfor an account at majordesign-studioplans.com. Bid docu-ments are non-refundable, butthey must be purchasedthrough the website. Checksshould be made payable to Ma-jor Design Studio and mailed toPlan House Printing, 607 WestMain Street, Tupelo, MS38804. Questions regardingwebsite registration and onlineorders should be directed toPlan House Printing at (662)407-0193. Only complete setsof documents will be issued.

1. A Non-Refundable deposit of$100.00 per copy made pay-able to Plan House Printing.

B. Viewing Procurement andContracting Documents: Exam-ine after April 10, 2020 at thelocations below:

1. Online Access is availableand pickup only is available atOffice of Plan House Printing,601.336.6378 or662.407.0193.

1.6 TIME OF COMPLETION

A. Successful bidder shall be-gin the Work on receipt of theNotice to Proceed and shallcomplete the Work within theContract Time.

1.7 BIDDER'S QUALIFICATIONS

A. Bidders must be properly li-censed under the laws govern-ing their respective trades andbe able to obtain insuranceand bonds required for theWork. A Performance Bond,separate Labor and MaterialPayment Bond, and Insurancein a form acceptable to Ownerwill be required of the success-ful Bidder.

1.8 NOTIFICATION

A. This Advertisement for Bidsdocument is issued by Mr.Mark Ellard, Vice President ofAdministration and CFO- Mis-sissippi University for Women.

B. Dates of Publication:April 10, 2020April 14, 2020

RENTALSADS STARTING AT $25

Apts For Rent: West

VIPRentals

Apartments & Houses

viceinvestments.com327-8555

1 Bedrooms2 Bedroooms3 Bedrooms

1, 2, & 3 BathsLease, Deposit& Credit Check

Furnished & Unfurnished

Apts For Rent: Other

1ST MONTH − RENT FREE!

1−2 BR Apt: $350−4351−2BR TwnHm: $625−650Lease, Dep, Credit Check.

Coleman Realty662−329−2323

Apts For Rent: Other

COLEMANRENTALS

TOWNHOUSES & APARTMENTS

1 BEDROOM2 BEDROOMS3 BEDROOMS

LEASE,DEPOSIT

ANDCREDIT CHECK

662-329-23232411 HWY 45 N

COLUMBUS, MS

© Th

e Disp

atch

Commercial Property For Rent

FOR RENT LOCATED NEAR

DOWNTOWN. 3,000 sq. ft.truck terminal, 9,500 sq.ft. shop & 3,200 sq. ft.office/shop. Buildings canbe rented together orseparately. All w/ excellentaccess & Hwy. 82 visibility.662−327−9559.

Houses For Rent: Other

HOUSE NEAR MUW W/

APARTMENT. 323 13th St.N. 3 Blks from MUW. LR,DR, 2/3BR−3BA, lg den w/fire place, kitchen, laundry,outside fenced patio,screened side porch &work room & ATTACHEDAPARTMENT: 1BR/1BA,living room/kitchenettearea. NO HUD. Ref req.Dep req. $1075/mo.662−386−7506.

Mobile Homes for Rent

RENT A CAMPER!

CHEAPER THAN A MOTEL!

Utilities & cable included,from $145/wk − $535/moColumbus & County Schoollocations. 662−242−7653

or 205−442−2011.

RV/MOBILE HOME SITE

East or West Columbus ornear CAFB, Caledoniaschools. 601−940−1397.

Office Spaces For Rent

OFFICE SPACE FOR

LEASE. 1112 Main St.,Ste. 5. 3700 sq. ft.Plenty of private parking.662−327−9559.

REAL ESTATEADS STARTING AT $25

Houses For Sale: East

2BR/1BA @ 1521

Shepherd Rd.

Sold as is, needs work.Serious inquiries only,

769−274−4110.

BARGAIN: 2BR/2BA inColumbus. LR, DR/KIT &step down den. Large lot.Needs work but is livable.Price reduced. Must sell.$9500. 662−574−2617.

Houses For Sale: New Hope

16 WIDNER IN NEW HOPE

Newly remodeled. 3BR/2BA home. Approx. 1,500sq. ft. Has 25’x30’ wiredmetal shop w/ roll−up front& side door. $154,500.662−549−9298.

Lots & Acreage

1.75 ACRE LOTS.

Good/Bad Credit Options.Good credit as low as 10%down, $299/mo. EatonLand, 662−361−7711.

LOT FOR SALE @ 406Cherry Street. $5,000.Call 662−328−5063 or662−436−6238,leave message.

MERCHANDISEADS STARTING AT $12

Farm Equipment & Supplies

JOHN DEERE MODEL M

TRACTOR. A set of one rowcultivators w/ hydraulic lift,has been repainted, looksgood & runs good, $3500.Call 662−436−2037.

Furniture

FURNITURE. Micro fabricsofa. $150. Two like new

recliners. $150 ea.Price negotiable.

Call 662−523−8662.

LIVING ROOM SET

Loveseat & chaise for sale.NEW!! $300.662−242−2884. Leave amessage.

General Merchandise

WANTED FREON R12.

We pay CA$H.R12 R500 R11.Convenient.

Certified professionals.312−291−9169

RefrigerantFinders.com/ad

WHITE POSTER

BOARDS.

24"x23"$0.50 each100 in stock

Visit 516 Main Streetor call 662−328−2424

VEHICLESADS STARTING AT $12

Campers & RVs

2012 JAYCO EAGLE 5thWHEEL, 39ft, 4 slide−outs.2BR, 48" TV & 27" TV.$26,500. 662−386−9605.

2012 JAYCO EAGLE 5thWHEEL, 39ft, 4 slide−outs.2BR, 48" TV & 27" TV.$26,500. 662−386−9605.

Motorcycles & ATVs

1993 KAWASAKI

VOYAGER XII Only 25,500miles. Runs & looks good.No problems. $3000 OBO.

Can be seen local.501−545−7750.

2 RACING GO KARTS,

extra tires & gears,$2,500. Call between8a−7p, 662−328−0028.

COMMUNITYADS STARTING AT $12

Travel & Entertainment

PUBLIC CATFISH POND

@ 130 Hillcrest Drive.Open Tues−Sat, 7a−5pAppointment Only, call

662−386−8591

Five Questions:

1 Sandals

2 “District 9”

3 Gerald Ford

4 Usher

5 Finland

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