Mississippi Politics News

by Adam Lynch
August 5, 2009

Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. is putting the Highway 80 corridor on his agenda this year. The mayor announced a $500,000 study of MetroCenter Mall and the U.S. Highway 80 corridor at a news conference yesterday, in the company of developers and interim Planning and Development Director Corinne Fox.

A Hattiesburg man has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography, announced Attorney General Jim Hood today. Branden Howard Henley, age 20, of 18 Lee Lane in Hattiesburg was arrested on Monday, August 3, 2009. The Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit of the Attorney General's Office led the investigation and was assisted in the execution of a search warrant by the Lamar County Sheriff's Office and the Hattiesburg F.B.I. Henley is charged with knowingly, intelligently and illegally having images in his possession of children under the age of 18 in sexually explicit poses. "We finally have software that enables us to see who is downloading child porn in this state," said Attorney General Jim Hood.

Recess advertising blitz This recess just keeps getting louder. The Democratic National Committee and the conservative Club for Growth both announced Tuesday that they plan to turn up the volume on health care reform over the break, largely in districts represented by vulnerable Democrats. The two groups have lined up on opposite sides of the ring – and it looks like it’ll be bruising for the members in the middle. The DNC has purchased radio advertising in 23 districts, thanking members of Congress for supporting health care reform or President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package. The spots “will begin as early as [Wednesday] and run into next week,” according to a DNC release.

City Council President Frank Bluntson and state Sen. Alice Harden swapped impressions of Metrocenter mall on Tuesday as they waited for the start of Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr.'s news conference.