In an effort to save money, Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, is proposing merging Jackson State University, Mississippi Valley State University and Alcorn State University into one school.

Will this work?

The brother of a Black man who was kidnapped, tied up and tossed into a Mississippi River backwater nearly a half-century ago said he is elated that an appeals court refused to free the former Klansman accused in the crime. “As I’ve said before, there was no doubt that [James Ford] Seale was guilty … so I’m glad that the 5th Circuit took a second shot at it with the whole panel,” said Thomas Moore, the 65-year-old brother of Charles Moore. Read the rest.

Should Students Pay for Class Prez’s Tux?
The executive branch of the Florida A&M University’s Student Government Association will be audited after claims of misuse of funds, which included a $714 tuxedo for SGA President Andrew Collins. Former student Senator Brittany Aikens made the claims during the Feb. 25 Student Government Association Senate meeting and requested an audit. “Every administration that crosses SGA doors stand for accountability and transparency,” said Aikens, 19, a sophomore actuarial science student from Port of Spain, Trinidad. “They should have no problem submitting the necessary documents to justify every purchase.” Aikens discovered the purchase of the suit after she asked to review SGA financial documents following the school’s announcement that the Athletic Department had a $4.2 million deficit. “When I heard the news, I wanted to make sure we were using funds wisely across the board,” Aikens said. “It’s our duty to hold our elected officials accountable.” Here’s more.

Bring Lynching Back, Says Black Lawmaker
If one Republican mayoral candidate has his way, lynching may make a legal comeback in Mississippi. George Lambus is canvassing mostly White neighborhoods in Jackson, Miss., with campaign fliers that blast Democratic city leaders and call for “a noose and stout tree limb” to combat crime. The flier reads: “Incompetent [N]egro Democrats at City Hall, [N]egroes without civic pride, [N]egro criminals and corrupt [N]egro police officers have just about driven this city into the ground. Any [N]egro Democrat running for mayor who tells you that he or she can reduce crime and bring jobs to Jackson is a damn lie. They only want to be mayor for the salary. Job creation is contingent upon the economy improving, and crime can only be alleviated by a noose and a stout tree limb. I will provide the noose, and when the economy improves, I will get the jobs here.” Read on.

Mississippi NAACP Wants Answers in Shooting

Mississippi NAACP leaders want to know why the officer who shot an African-American man during a police road block is back on the street. “We would like to see the officer, first off, taken off the streets again until this investigation has been conducted,” said Rev. Jimmy Richardson, president of the Pearl River County NAACP. Mississippi NAACP Vice President Clarence Magee agreed. “Our whole intent is to be sure that if his civil rights are violated, somebody should answer for it,” Magee said. Read more.

Morris Brown Pays Off Water Bill, Stays Afloat

Historically Black Morris Brown College in Atlanta has paid of the balance of an overdue water bill, rescuing the campus from the brink of closure. The financially troubled institution is mired in debt and as late as last month owed more than $215,000, but a flurry of last-minute fundraising allowed the campus to submit a check to the city’s water board for 64,887.32, according to station WABE. Read the rest.

Parents: Cops’ story of son’s suicide sounds shaky. The parents of a Mississippi high school star athlete aren’t buying the cops’ story that their son shot himself to death during a traffic stop. They want the NAACP to initiate an independent autopsy to determine how Billey Joe Johnson, of George County High School. The officer who stopped the 17-year-old running back said that he had gone back to his patrol car to do a license check and heard a gunshot. He said he then saw Johnson fall out of the driver side of the car with the shotgun on top of him. “The NAACP, along with the family, have determined that Billey Joe Johnson did not commit suicide,” Curley Clark, the vice president of the NAACP’s Mississippi chapter told The Mississippi Press. “At this point, nothing is concrete until the results of the autopsies have been made known.” Clark said the civil rights group will have the results of a second autopsy done this week.” This incident will not be swept under the rug,” Clark told WLOX. “We are going to make sure all the facts are brought out. We are going to provide the proper assistance necessary to sure no civil rights were violated.” Johnson’s brother, Eddie, said that Billey loved to hunt and would sometimes go early in the morning before heading to school.  That, he said, would explain why his brother had a shotgun in his car. Billy rushed for more than 4,000 yards in his high school career and had scholarship offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State and Oregon.

Tens of thousands sought shelter outside of the Bayou State

With three-year-old Katrina still fresh on their minds, tens of thousands of Louisiana residents fled the wind-whipped, water-soaked Bayou State Monday seeking safer ground in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. As an angry Hurricane Gustav barreled down on their homes, businesses neighborhoods, they traveled by car, train, bus and plane, determined not to be the ones seen on TV waving for helicopter rescue squads to deliver them. As many as 82,000 Louisiana residents crammed into shelters spread across eight states, according to Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for the state. She told CNN that the Louisiana Department of Social Services had set up two shelters, including two in Shreveport, one in Bastrop and one more in Monroe – holding 10,000 people. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) hooked up with the Red Cross to administer services from shelters in Shreveport and Alexandria – holding 5,000 people. According to Mississippi state officials, some 12,400 Louisiana residents had flowed into the state. Officials set up a phone registry so that people can find out where their relatives and loved ones are located. The number is 1-800-258-9822. State officials want residents to stay in their homes – even after Gustav passes by. “They’ll let people know when it’s safe to return,” Stephens said. This is important, she said because there are still dangers from threats posed by downed power lines and trees, floodwater and debris. “It’s really crowded, and everybody’s just trying to do their best,” Kesha Harlow, who was there with her daughter, 8, and her son, 2 months. “We’re just waiting for the storm to blow over.” New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has appealed to those who fled to stay put until the end of the week, which will give workers time to secure weakened levees and downed power lines and drain flooded streets.

Prisons, colleges and state agencies got supplies intended for people suffering.

Instead of going to Mississippi’s Hurricane Katrina victims – many of whom are still struggling three years later to pull their lives back together – tens of millions of much-needed household items went to everybody from inmates to state administrators, CNN reports. Last month, the news network reported that officials in Louisiana, the state slammed hardest by the killer storm of 2005, turned down the surplus goods from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sparking an outcry from activists and aid agencies over the seeming ongoing neglect of that suffering population. But unlike Louisiana, which turned down a share of the $85 million in dinnerware, bed linens, coffee pots, cleaning supplies and other supplies, Mississippi was one of the 16 states that collected the wares. Kym Wiggins, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Surplus Agency, said, “There may be a need, but we were not notified that there was a great need for this particular property.” But critics want to know how it was determined that those most in need were the state’s Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, whose staff wound up with coffee makers; Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration staffers who landed some nifty plastic containers; and prisons, colleges and volunteer fire departments, who reeled in scads of other items. “You would have to be living under a rock not to know there is still a need,” Cass Woods, the project coordinator of Coastal Women for Change, told CNN. Sharon Hanshaw, director of Coastal Women for Change, a nonprofit group helping storm victims, agreed. “It’s scary to know that there are supplies that they are harboring and people [are] in need right now as we speak today.”