The Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) announced in a press conference today that Dr. Martha Saunders, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, is the preferred candidate for the position of President of the University of Southern Mississippi. The announcement was made following a meeting of the Board of Trustees, Commissioner of Higher Education Dr. Thomas C. Meredith, representatives of the Southern Miss Search Advisory Committee, and search consultant, Dr. Jan Greenwood.

“Dr. Saunders is a visionary, with the experience needed to lead the University of Southern Mississippi now and into the future,” said Trustee Robin Robinson, chair of the Southern Miss Board Search Committee. “The Board and Search Advisory Committee were blessed with a tremendous applicant pool, and we are confidant that the search process has led us to the best candidate for president of Southern Miss.”

A short bio is as follows:

Dr. Martha Dunagin Saunders is Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, the first-ever woman to hold the position. During her tenure, she has brought the campus together with a widely inclusive strategic planning process; hosted a successful Higher Learning Commission re-accreditation review; and finalized plans for major building projects totaling $110 million, including a new University Center and a new building for the College of Business and Economics.

Prior to her appointment at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, she was vice president for academic affairs at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia, where she led an effort to create the Centers of Excellence to further the academic outreach of more than 30 private-public partnerships. She was on the leadership team for a successful $100 million capital campaign, led the campus strategic planning process, and developed several initiatives to increase student enrollment, recruit and retain outstanding faculty and staff, improve the first year experience, and strengthen preparation of teachers in mathematics and science.

Discussion is being held about Dr. Martha Dunagin Saunders over at the forums.

Harvey Fillingane 1259 or 39% of the vote

Erica McHard 777 or 24% of the vote

Joe Garvin 762

Eddie Stephenson 247

Dale Beavers 167

There will be a runoff between Fillingane and McHard on January 2nd.

Mississippi House 100 Election results:

Ken Morgan 985 or 29% of the vote

O.K. “Kenny” Moore 835 or 25% of the vote

Thomas Blakeney 642

Donovan McComb 594

Terry Montgomery 349

There will be a runoff between Moore and Morgan.

These results are unofficial.

House 101 Election results are being discussed over at the forums and a House 101 Runoff Poll is up.

Hattiesburg PD Accreditation

Meet the House District 101 Candidates

Who will win House District 101 election?

Mississippi House District 101 Map

P.S from No-Halo: Thanks to noway for being the Easter Bunny. Without his inspirational story, we might not have reached our goal.

Another important issue decided at this meeting was that 20-year veteran David Webster will be taking over as Hattiesburg fire chief on December 11th.

• In an effort to change the council in his favor, Fairley and crew filed a lawsuit against Hattiesburg.
• This was closely followed by the Hattiesburg American calling for the mayor to make a decision on Wynn.
• A letter by a former HPD officer was also published by the Hattiesburg American stating that race was not an issue.
• The next day, WDAM reported that a federal grand jury has re-indicted eight people in a mortgage flipping scheme, with one addition, Kenneth Fairley Jr. Also included is Kenneth Fairley’s brother, Vaston.
• The same day, Jim Cameron shared his viewpoint on this situation. He effectively voiced the opinions of many MH members.
• Kim Bradley opened a lot of people’s eyes to the fact that the Chief Administrative Officer has absolute power over city directors in the absence of the mayor, which is a lot of power given to a non-elected position.
• With all the pressure from the media and citizens of Hattiesburg, this prompted Wynn to call a press conference on Thursday morning in which Dupree informed everyone that Wynn is here to stay.
• This was closely followed-up by a rebuttal to Jim Cameron’s viewpoint in which he reminds everyone that he is the mayor of Hattiesburg.

It’s been a depressing week for the opponents of Chief Wynn. The one hope that the group has left is the lawsuit being brought against Johnny Dupree to submit his department heads. If this is successful, then Wynn will most likely not be approved.

Of course, I don’t want it to seem like everything is bad in Hattiesburg this week. The Independent announced it is ceasing operations of it’s newspaper to move on to bigger and better things with it’s new magazine called South Mississippi Scene.

With July 4th coming up, one of our members has posted all the Independence Day events in and around the Pine Belt. That’s going to wrap it up for this week, thanks for visiting and Happy July 4th!

• Hattiesburg Police respond to a man being beaten
• Police chief calls former officers racist
• $1 Million Cocaine Bust Made in Lamar County
• Should schools ban soft drink sales?
• “Somebody Wanted them Dead”
• Olive Garden Finally Going up…
• City Hall broken into

Additions to the site

• A Hurricanes and Tropical Storms forum has been added to discuss the predicted upcoming busy storm season in the Gulf of Mexico.
• We’ve added a listing of auto dealer web sites that offer their inventory of Hattiesburg used cars on their web sites.

We’re also discussing a holding a football fantasy league contest over in the vBookie forums, if your a huge football fan, you don’t want to miss this one.

Also note that there is a Lamar County burn ban in effect. The link will take you to a current discussion about whether fireworks are included in this ban or not.

City Council Files Law Suit Against Dupree!

Fire Chief Jim Fiero resigns

Regions Bank and AmSouth to Merge

Delgado Says Citizens of Hattiesburg Used to Controversy

Today’s HA Editorial Wants Everyone to Kiss and Makeup

Get it here