We thought all baptisms were free

Taken today in McClellanville, SC:

Tax Commission to hear from Mississippi public

JACKSON — Mississippi citizens and interest groups will have the opportunity to speak to members of the Governor's Tax Study Commission. The event will take place May 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Mississippi Telcom Center in downtown Jackson.

"The Commission's first two meetings, including the second meeting held (April 29) at Jackson State University, have served as general overview meetings of Mississippi's tax structure and general tax policy," said Commission chairman Leland Speed. "As the Commission begins to sharpen its pencil, we'd like to begin that process by hearing from the public."

Both individuals and interest groups will have an opportunity to speak publicly to the Commission May 19. Interested speakers or groups may e-mail to taxstudy@governor.state.ms.us, or call (601) 359-3150 by May 16 to reserve time. People who do not reserve time before May 16 but come to the meeting May 19 will be placed at the end of the list. Space will be allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis, and written statements will also be accepted.

In January, Gov. Haley Barbour announced the creation of a public-private commission developed to study Mississippi's tax code and recommend reforms. During his re-election campaign, Barbour promised to appoint this commission so the state would no longer take a piecemeal approach but a comprehensive approach to tax reform.

The Commission is required to present its findings and recommendations to the governor, Legislature and public August 31, 2008.

From The Mississippi Business Journal April 30, 2008

Economic Trends in NC

An op-ed piece in yesterday's issue of The News & Observer dissected the economic trends buffeting working families in North Carolina. Written by the NC Justice Center and the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the piece focuses on one of the South's persistent problems, low-wage work.

Regardless of whether the nation technically is in a recession, working families most definitely are. Since the 2001 recession, North Carolina has lost, on balance, more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs, a traditional source of living-wage employment for individuals without post-secondary degrees.

This has occurred alongside rapid growth in the low-wage labor market. Less than one out of every four jobs in North Carolina pays more than $17 an hour and offers both employer-provided health and retirement benefits, according to an analysis by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

....

Our next president will have to address both the immediate problems stemming from the recession and the longer-term problems associated with the loss of good jobs. Ideally, the policies that combat the recession in the short term could also help counteract the larger problem of low-wage work.

Pushing for education reform in SC

Two new and separate efforts in South Carolina are seeking to improve public education.

Long-time education activist Bud Ferillo, who produced a shocking 2005 film on the poor educational offerings in poor South Carolina counties (see Corridor of Shame), is trying to get 1,000,000 signatures in an online petition supporting a pro-public education constitutional amendment. Hence: GoodbyeMinimallyAdequate.com.

In 2005, a state court ruled that the state of South Carolina had a responsibility to provide only a "minimally adequate" public education. The ruling, which will be heard on appeal in June by the state Supreme Court, has spawned the amendment effort to add a constitutional requirement for the state to "provide a high quality education, allowing each student to reach his highest potential."

Another new public education effort is by former state Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum, who wants state lawmakers to provide better funding for schools, particularly those in poverty areas. Hence: RISE SC, which "represents a network of individuals, businesses and advocacy organizations committed to improving the lives of South Carolinians through comprehensive and sustained reform of our public education system."

"We hope it will become a 'league of education voters,' in much the same way as the League of Conservation Voters is," Tenenbaum told S.C. Statehouse Report in a new story on both organizations.

• Read more of the article.

Intechra collects more e-waste in Mississippi

JACKSON — On April 12, Intechra collected nearly 45,000 pounds of used electronics during free recycling events at five of its facilities across the country. That was an increase of 12.5% compared to its Earth Day collections in 2007.

The electronics recycling company will process the used computers, laptops, monitors, printers, cell phones, TVs and stereos at facilities in Columbus, Ohio, Dallas, Hartford, Conn., and Merrimack, N.H. Intechra also accepted donations at its Jackson headquarters.

Also on April 12, Intechra partnered with Dell at its Nashville, Tenn., campus. Roughly 200,000 pounds of computer and electronics were collected from the Nashville community to be recycled by Intechra.

"These events were a great opportunity to serve our communities by providing them secure, responsible recycling for old computers and electronics," says Intechra CEO Chip Slack. "More than 120 tons of e-waste could have ended up in landfills if people hadn't had a place to recycle them."

From The Mississippi Business Journal April 28, 2008

Something to chew on

Writing in Newsweek, Michael Hirsh lays into the "Southernization of our national politics."

The coarsened sensibility that this now-dominant Southernism and frontierism has brought to our national dialogue is unmistakable. We must endure "lapel-pin politics" that elevates the shallowest sort of faux jingoism over who's got a better plan for Iraq and Afghanistan. We have re-imported creationism into our political dialogue (in the form of "intelligent design"). ... We routinely demonize organizations like the United Nations that we desperately need and which are critical to missions like nation-building in Afghanistan. On foreign policy, the realism and internationalism of the Eastern elitist tradition once kept the Southern-frontier warrior culture and Wilsonian messianism in check. Now the latter two, in toxic combination, have taken over our national dialogue, and the Easterners are running for the hills.

Lots to chew on from Mr. Hirsh. The article is online here.