Free Republic

MERIDIAN, Miss. – A pair of new polls are giving hope to Newt Gingrich’s Deep South strategy, as he stresses religion and steps up attacks on rival Rick Santorum. The former U.S. House Speaker leads in Mississippi according to an American Research Group poll out Friday morning has Gingrich leading with 35 percent, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 31 percent and Santorum at 20 percent. A Rasmussen Poll of Alabama shows a dead heat: Gingrich at 30 percent, Santorum at 29 and Romney at 28. ......Santorum is best known as a strident social conservative, but while representing...

(CNN) – Newt Gingrich is edging out his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in Mississippi, according to a new poll. The American Research Group survey of likely Republican primary voters released Friday showed Gingrich with 35% support, followed by Mitt Romney with 31%, Rick Santorum with 20% and Ron Paul with 7%. Gingrich's margin over Romney increased slightly among those who said they will definitely vote in the March 13 primary, 37% to 30%. Santorum garnered 17% support and Paul received 5% among the same group. The poll was conducted after Super Tuesday, when each of the GOP White...

Alabama Republicans are up to bat next, and right now it’s a near three-way tie going into next Tuesday’s primary. The first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters in Alabama finds Newt Gingrich barely ahead with 30% support to 29% for Rick Santorum and 28% for Mitt Romney. Texas Congressman Ron Paul trails with seven percent (7%) of the vote. One percent (1%) prefers some other candidate, and six percent (6%) remain undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled some pardons issued by former Gov. Haley Barbour are valid. Republican Barbour pardoned 198 people before finishing his second term Jan. 10, including four convicted murderers and a robber who worked as inmate trusties at the Governor's Mansion. Of those pardoned, 10 were in jail at the time. Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood challenged the pardons. Hood argued before the Supreme Court on Feb. 9 that some pardons didn't meet the requirements of the Mississippi Constitution, which says people seeking pardons must publish notices for 30 days in a newspaper....

In Mississippi, Santorum Makes Case For Two-Man Race By NBC's Andrew Rafferty JACKSON, Miss. -- Rick Santorum called on Mississippi voters to deliver the knockout blow that would end Newt Gingrich's candidacy and make it a two-man race between Mitt Romney and the former Pennsylvania senator for the Republican nomination. "You have an opportunity here in Mississippi to narrow this race, narrow this race to a conservative versus the insider moderate. I ask you here tonight to stand with me," Santorum told a crowd of 300 at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum on Wednesday. "If we win Mississippi, this...

GULFPORT -- World War II era combat aircraft will land this afternoon and be here for three days, giving locals a chance to climb aboard them and look around as part of the Wings of Freedom Tour. They’ll also be seen in the skies above South Mississippi over the next three days as locals can buy rides on the historic planes. The tour will feature a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, a Consolidated B-24J Liberator and a North American P-51 Mustang, which will land at 2 p.m. at Atlantic Aviation and remain there until Friday at noon. Locals will get...

A Covington County couple is outraged because their 11-year-old son was handcuffed in front of his classmates by authorities. Angela and Christopher Thompson of Mount Olive say their son was handcuffed and escorted out of his 5th grade classroom by a Covington County Sheriff Deputy for missing too many days of school. Angela Thompson says "We are not disputing the fact that the children have missed days. My son got off the bus in tears, crying. I thought maybe he was joking, he said no mama they handcuffed me and took me out. How come I wasn't notified. How come...

Arieh O’Sullivan left South Mississippi in 1981 to join the Israeli army. He has made a life as a journalist and olive farmer in that country, but holds tight to his Southern heritage in ways that sometimes perplex his friends, co-workers and even his mother. On Wednesday, he further tightened his connection to the region of his birth by taking the oath of the Sons of Confederate Veterans at Beauvoir. O’Sullivan, who holds dual American and Israeli citizenship, is proud of the service given by his great-great-grandfather, Alabama Calvary Lt. George A Johnson. In the oath administered by Wallace Mason...

BILOXI -- GOP candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has changed his plans for a one-day trip to Mississippi and now plans two trips, one on March 8 and one on March 12 before the state’s March 13 primary. The March 12 trip will include at least one, perhaps multiple, stops on the Coast, said Scott Brewster, Gingrich’s “grassroots” coordinator for Mississippi. The first trip will likely include stops in Tupelo, Southaven and Jackson. He said more details should be available early next week. On Thursday, the campaign had announced a one-day trip to Mississippi on March 8, starting...

JACKSON, MS—Monyette Quintel Jefferson, 27, Terence Dale Jenkins, 25, and Anthony Ricardo Payne, Jr., 25, all Jackson Police Department patrol officers at the time of the offense, have been arrested for accepting bribes to protect what they believed to be drug transactions following an undercover operation, U.S. Attorney John Dowdy and FBI Special Agent in Charge Daniel McMullen announced today. On June 25, 2010, an undercover FBI agent, posing as a drug dealer, met with Officers Monyette Quintel Jefferson and Anthony Ricardo Payne at Metro Center Mall to discuss their protection of a shipment of cocaine that was coming into...

PASCAGOULA -- Navy Capt. John McGrath spent three days this week meeting with officials in Mississippi in preparation for the June 2 commissioning of the USS Mississippi submarine in Pascagoula. The commanding officer of the pre-commissioning unit, McGrath was scheduled to meet with Pascagoula Mayor Robbie Maxwell, the Mississippi Commissioning Committee and NROTC units and faculty from the University of Mississippi and University of Memphis, according to the Navy. The commissioning of the $2 billion submarine was moved to Pascagoula after the Navy had concerns about the channel depth in Gulfport.

PASCAGOULA -- Navy Capt. John McGrath spent three days this week meeting with officials in Mississippi in preparation for the June 2 commissioning of the USS Mississippi submarine in Pascagoula. The commanding officer of the pre-commissioning unit, McGrath was scheduled to meet with Pascagoula Mayor Robbie Maxwell, the Mississippi Commissioning Committee and NROTC units and faculty from the University of Mississippi and University of Memphis, according to the Navy. The commissioning of the $2 billion submarine was moved to Pascagoula after the Navy had concerns about the channel depth in Gulfport.

GINGRICH: No. It just means that we're going to have to pick up all those delegates in late May, just before the California primary, when we hope to pick up more delegates out here. That still means that on super-Tuesday, we're looking at Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, we're looking at Ohio. It means the week after super- Tuesday, we're looking at Alabama and Mississippi. Now, we have hopes that we're going to keep picking up delegates everywhere and continue. This race is going on for a long time, I think. And what Texas moving back means, combined with California being in...

HERNANDO, Miss. -- DeSoto County has formally objected to the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to list it as "nonattainment" on ozone levels. DeSoto County officials also want the EPA to abandon a "misguided" proposal to list the county with Memphis as falling short on ozone standards. In December, EPA announced a proposal to include parts of DeSoto with Memphis, which has ozone emissions above allowable limits set by federal regulation. The plan would include urban areas of DeSoto County and Crittenden County, Ark., in the Memphis ozone "non-attainment" area. Ozone non-attainment could impair industrial recruitment by requiring prospective firms to...

n his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives. *snip* Among those cited in the Washington Post report were the following (below):

PRINCETON, NJ -- Mississippi remains the most conservative state in the union, and, along with Utah, Wyoming, and Alabama, is one of four states with 50% or more of its population identifying as conservative. At the other end of the ideological spectrum, 40% District of Columbia residents and 30% of Massachusetts residents identify as liberal; all other states have a liberal population of 26% or less.

JACKSON, Miss. -- The Mississippi Supreme Court will hear arguments next week about whether several pardons issued by former Gov. Haley Barbour violated the state constitution. In a ruling issued Wednesday, the state high court granted a request from attorneys representing four pardoned former Governor's Mansion trusties to move the case from the Hinds County Circuit Court. Attorney General Jim Hood has argued that pardons issued by Barbour, including those granted to convicted murders David Gatlin, Charles Hooker, Anthony McCray, Joseph Ozment and convicted robber Nathan Kern, violated a state constitutional requirement that notice be posted for 30 days in...

Friday, former Govenor Haley Barbour went on CNN and defended his pardon and sentence modification of more than 200 state convicts. He was asked specifically about the pleas of a Rankin County family to be heard before the pardon of the murderer of their loved one. Barbour says his lawyers met with the family two years before the release. But family members say they didn't know the killer was working at the mansion until a year ago. "So there would have been no way we could have met with him two years ago. We have had no contact with any...

EFFECTIVE THIS SUNDAY AFTERNOON FROM 520 PM UNTIL MIDNIGHT CST. ...THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION... DESTRUCTIVE TORNADOES...LARGE HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER... THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 80 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS. THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 85 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST OF A LINE FROM 35 MILES NORTH NORTHWEST OF DYERSBURG TENNESSEE TO 25 MILES WEST SOUTHWEST OF GREENVILLE MISSISSIPPI. FOR A COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE ASSOCIATED WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE (WOUS64 KWNS WOU5). REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND...

The sheer number of pardons handed out by outgoing Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour – over 200 – left many Mississippians in shock. What may not have been so surprising is that white prisoners were four times more likely than black ones to get the gubernatorial benefit of the doubt. Out of a total of 222 acts of clemency given by Barbour during his tenure – 156 of which Attorney General Jim Hood has subsequently argued may be constitutionally invalid because of public notice violations – two-thirds benefited white prisoners. Meanwhile, two-thirds of the state's prison population is black. On its...