Meridian Star - Local News

Northeast Middle School makes ‘room’ for fitness
After just a few weeks of effort, Northeast Middle School eighth-grader Margie Beaty is already starting to see positive results.
"Working out in the fitness room is fun and challenging," Margie said. "It keeps me in a routine, and already I can see a difference in my fitness level."
To complement its physical fitness curriculum, Northeast has added a Physical Fitness Room – complete with cardiovascular equipment (treadmills, cross-trainers and recumbent bikes), strength-training and weight-bearing equipment (weight-lifting stations) and flexibility equipment (exercise balls, cords).
Grand Jury: Juvenile center still needs work
Two arrested in bus theft
Run-off in Clarke County school trustee elections
Creative Donation
(3:30 p.m.) WL bus vandals arrested
SLIDESHOW—MHS vs THS football.
Groundbreaking marks hallowed ground for vets
Sticking up from the red dirt were several shovels with hard hats resting on top of them. The shovels and hard hats eerily resembled the type of memorial given to fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan when helmets are situated on top of the assault rifles of the soldier lost in combat.
The only thing missing was a pair of boots.
The shovels on this day sticking up from the rolling landscape of Newton County were there to signal a more celebratory occasion, albeit one that still honors the fallen. Local, state and federal officials, along with scores of veterans and current military personnel and representatives, gathered Thursday morning on the site of the Mississippi Veterans Memorial Cemetery between Hickory and Newton on Hwy. 80 to hold a groundbreaking ceremony marking the official start of construction. The 75-acre site will over the next several years be converted from rolling grazing land for cows to a place of honor for military veterans. The cemetery will be operated by the Mississippi Veteran's Affairs Board.
Mississippi Sen. Videt Carmichael, who along with several other dignitaries addressed the crowd of veterans and military personnel, said his role was small in helping to get the cemetery to this point of becoming reality.
This weekend: British, steam and barbecues
The Sucarnochee Revue launches a “British Invasion” tonight at 7 p.m. at the Temple Theatre in downtown Meridian. Tickets are $5.
The nationally syndicated radio show will feature music from the early 1960s when England ruled the pop charts. Special guests include The Beatles tribute band, Rubber Soul.
Host Jacky Jack White is excited about this month’s program. “The Beatles, the Stones, the Animals, the Yardbirds, in fact, almost every major English rock band of the era was influenced by Mississippi blues musicians. The circle keeps turning as these great current Mississippi artists cover the British tunes of the ‘60s.”
Other special guests include Gypsy Carns and Chris Ethridge, both veterans of the 1960s RocknRoll scene.
The band Rubber Soul is a celebration of The Beatles' music, but its performances include much of the visual imagery of the Beatles. Using accurate reproductions of the gear and the Fab Four look, Rubber Soul recreates the sound and the excitement of a Beatles concert. Stage banter is done with British accents, and costumes range from the black turtlenecks and jeans favored by the Fab Four in their early days at Liverpool’s Cavern Club to the famous velvet-collar suits as seen on that famous Ed Sullivan show in 1964, as well as military-influenced Shea Stadium jackets from the 1965 tour. The band members are Marc Speed, David Zettler, Brad Johnson, and Steve Deaton. Marc Speed, who is naturally right-handed is one example of the group’s authenticity. Since he is the “Paul McCartney” of the group, he taught himself to play the bass left-handed.
Leaf pick-up begins
Commercial burglaries on the rise
The first noticeable clue something might be up is when two shadowy individuals show up on a convenience store surveillance video long after the store closed.
With their faces covered up by various means, one person reaches into a backpack, pulls out what appears to be a brick and launches it through the front glass of the door. Glass shatters and spreads across the floor of the store as the two, who are now burglary suspects, sprint through the opening grabbing cigarettes, cigars and pretty much anything else they can get their hands on. They are only in the store for about a minute and then they are gone.
These commercial burglaries, or what law enforcement officials call smash and grabs, have occurred three times since Oct. 31 in Lauderdale County. They follow the same method of gaining entry and the suspects steal pretty much the same type of items. Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department investigators are trying to get a handle on these individuals and they are asking the public to help them out.
Taking action at Juvenile Center

A lawsuit by Disability Rights Mississippi appears to have lit a fire under county officials when it comes to improving conditions at the Lauderdale County Juvenile Detention Facility.
DRM, part of the Mississippi Youth Justice Project and the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed suit against the county in October because they were denied access to the facility, which they requested to enter in order to assess reports of sub-standard conditions and ill treatment of juveniles. DRM said they have a right under federal law to enter the facility.
Since the suit was filed, the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors have taken a few small steps toward improving some of the conditions there.
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Breaking ground on vets cemetery
This morning state and local officials will dig into the Mississippi clay of Newton County with gold-colored shovels marking the official groundbreaking for the "Arlington of the South," the Mississippi Veteran's Memorial Cemetery.
The ceremony, which will be held at the 75-acre site between Hickory and Newton on Highway 80, will over the next several years be converted from rolling grazing land for cows to a place of honor for military veterans. The cemetery will be operated by the Mississippi Veteran's Affairs Board. The groundbreaking will mark the official start of construction for the cemetery and administrative buildings during the first of three construction phases.
Special speakers for the ceremony will be Mississippi Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, Mississippi State University President Dr. Mark Keenum, and Tom Paquelet, from the United States Secretary of Veteran's Affairs in Washington, D.C.
Police searching for missing teen
Whistlestop Weekend
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