Friday Jan. 6,
2012
50 cents
Daily Corinthian Vol. 116, No. 5
Partly sunny Today
Tonight
67
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• Corinth, Mississippi • 18 pages • 2 sections
New state senator ready for new role time since Reconstruction. “It’s exciting, and great to be a part of history,” said Parks. “My family and friends and constituents Parks from the 4th district were here to support me. It’s an overwhelming and
BY BOBBY J. SMITH bjsmith@dailycorinthian.com
After taking the oath of office on Tuesday, the freshman Republican senator from Corinth is focusing on the job ahead of her at the beginning of a historic session for the state legislature. District 4 Senator Rita Potts Parks joins a 2012 legislature that has already made the history books, with Republicans taking control of the state House and Senate for the first
Poetry Project
exciting time.” Parks is one of 15 new members in the 52-seat Senate, where the GOP picked up a 13-2 majority among Senate freshmen. The House is joined by 32 new members, with a 21-11 majority for the GOP. With the majority of votes Republicans can pass tax and revenue bills without the cooperation of any Democrats. According to Parks, the primary issue faced by the current
session’s lawmakers is the state budget. “I think first and foremost we need to make sure we all have a budget that is passable,” she said. The last of the state’s federal stimulus money was spent in 2011, and Mississippi legislators now face the challenge of finding a way to fund the state’s different entities and agencies without raising taxes. Some legislators see the consolidation of smaller state agencies as the
path to avoiding a budget deficit in 2012. Redistricting and education are the other two issues cited by Parks as top concerns in the new session. The November elections were held under old maps which do not accurately reflect the population shifts seen in the state during the past decade, with people moving from rural areas
Born at 12:12 a.m. in 2012 Group
offers help to writers
Corinth will host contest BY BOBBY J. SMITH bjsmith@dailycorinthian.com
The Northern Regional Contest of Poetry Out Loud — a national competition to teach young people about poetry through memorization and recitation — is coming soon to Corinth. Sponsored by Crossroads Poetry Project, the regional competition will be held Monday, Feb. 6, at Waldron Street Christian Church. “We’re happy to have the honor of bringing the regional contest to Corinth,” said Milton Wallis, vice president of Crossroads Poetry Project. “We’re excited about hosting the event for the first time in Corinth.” The Northern Regional Contest will feature poetry recitations by the winners of Poetry Out Loud contests in 12 North Mississippi high schools. Poetry Out Loud has a pyramid-structure, starting at the classroom level, with winners on the classroom level moving forward to a school-wide competition and on to the regional and state competitions. The regional winner will go on to the state competition, and the state winner will compete Please see POETRY | 2A
Please see PARKS | 2A
BY BOBBY J. SMITH bjsmith@dailycorinthian.com
Submitted photo
Aubrey Nicole Thompson was the first baby born in 2012 at Magnolia Regional Health Center. The third child of Lucas and Jerika Thompson was born Sunday, Jan. 1, at 12:12 a.m. and weighed 6 pounds and 1.6 ounces. She was 18.5 inches long. The child’s physicians are Blakley Fowler, MD (Pediatrician) and Diane Evans, DO (OB/GYN). Aubrey Nicole has an older sister, Annabella Grace, and brother, Ian Xander.
The local poetry group will offer a workshop to help writers spark their imaginations on Saturday. Crossroads Poetry Project’s Speculative Poetry Workshop will be held from 10 a.m. until noon at the Corinth Public Library on Saturday. Local poet and writer Lee Ann Story Sikora will lead the workshop, which will teach about cultivating imagination through speculative poetry. “Speculative poetry is highly imaginative poetry, and the writing exercises conducted during the workshop should be good fun for fiction writers as well as poets,” explained Sikora. The workshop leader described speculative poetry as an increasingly popular genre of poetry that is not defined by form, but more for its elements of science fiction and fantasy. “It’s wholly imaginative — and really fun,” Sikora said. The program will start with a discussion of the meaning of speculative poetry followed by group contributions and individPlease see WRITERS | 2A
New year brings new chapter in life of attorney Arch Bullard BY BRANT SAPPINGTON bsappington@dailycorinthian.com
As a new chapter opens in the life of local attorney Arch Bullard, the story of his lifelong commitment to the law and public service remains the same. Bullard spent just over 15 years as an assistant district attorney in Corinth, handling cases primarily in Alcorn, Prentiss and Tishomingo counties. The beginning of the new year brought his departure from the district attorney’s office as a new administration took over and a move into a new area of legal practice. Bullard will now be working with Bill Davis in the Corinth office of the firm of Clayton O’Donnell, a large Northeast Mississippi law firm with a wide ranging focus on complex business and commercial litigation, civil cases and other work for corporations, municipalities, businesses and individuals. The attorney said he’s excited about the new challenges and opportunities
to be found in his new job and looking forward to continuing to serve people through the practice of law. “I’m really scared and excited and intrigued about the opportunity to enter a different area,” he said. In some ways, the move is a return to his roots. Early in his career, Bullard worked for two and a half years in a small firm in West Point doing a wide range of civil and criminal work. He then went on to serve as a clerk for U.S. District Judge L.V. Senter, where he was involved in a huge range of federal litigation. For this son of an attorney who also counts two of his siblings as fellow lawyers, the law is much more than a job, it’s been a lifelong calling and remains at the core of who he is. “I knew what I was going to do when I was 3 years old,” he said. Bullard said the lessons learned by watching how his father practiced law Please see BULLARD | 2A
Index Stocks...... 7A Classified......5B Comics......4B Wisdom......3B
Weather......5A Obituaries......3A Opinion......4A Sports......8A
Arch Bullard of Corinth served as a proctor at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, S.C. It is a training facility for prosecutors from all across the country. Bullard served there as a teacher/facilitator.
On this day in history 150 years ago The new gunboat fleet on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers needs sailors. Flag Officer Andrew Foote asks the army for soldiers to help man the vessels. General Grant suggests sending prisoners from the various army stockades.