InkBlots

Sun Herald publisher Ricky Mathews is heard in this Thursday morning report by MPB radio on efforts to improve access to civil courts for the state’s poor and impoverished.

Eric Strinfellow: Some people believed Melton would adapt and do an outstanding job; others thought the nonconformist would implode. With the mayor engulfed in multiple criminal investigations, it looks like the debate is close to being settled - and might pose another huge issue for Jackson.

Sid Salter: Let’s see, Mayor Melton needs advice on how to conduct himself as mayor from Dale Danks, Charles Evers, Jim Hood and still he doesn’t understand concepts like due process of law, separation of powers, qualified law enforcement officer and other minor details.

Gary Pettus: Go ahead, Seuss me.

David Hampton: Since Jackson Mayor Frank Melton is acting like an unruly teenager, he should be treated as such. The City Council needs to take away his ride.

C-L Editorial Board: The Jackson City Council appears to remain politically divided on what to do about the serious allegations against Mayor Frank Melton, but there could be some resolution by the end of the week.

Letter to the C-L: Much like the ACLU’s coddling of criminals for fear of violating their rights, The Clarion-Ledger is coddling criminals by its anti-Melton movement. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. Either citizens are willing to put up with crime, or willing to let Mayor Melton do the job they elected him to do.

The Clarion-Ledger reports this morning on the latest in the professional nosedive of Jackson Mayor Frank Melton who, among a slew of other high-profile embarrassments over the course of his first year in office, now stands accused of being present at – and possibly taking part in – the destruction of a dwelling a couple of a weeks ago. The same night, officials are now investigating the Mayor’s presence at a city night club where the manager claims he was roughed up by goons in the Melton entourage.

Meanwhile, the attorney for the property owner of the house the Mayor’s posse allegedly took sledgehammers to, says he’ll file suit against the the mayor and the city.

The Christian News and Media Agency is reporting on what it calls a “vulgar sex column” in the student-run campus newspaper at Southern Miss. Last week The Student Printz published what CNMA (aka WDC Media) called a graphic “how to” article…titled “Pillow Talk: College a Time to Experiment.” The paper’s executive editor, David McCraney, says “Pillow Talk” will be a regular column and “will probably get racier by degrees each edition.”

This week’s chapter is a piece on safe sex and finding “the right condom.” We suspect the CNMA will not be pleased.

A couple of months after longtime newspaperman Sam Hall resigned as communications director of for Mississippi Democrats to take a job as publisher of the Demopolis Times in Alabama, the party has returned to the print well and tapped another journalist to take the reins.

Terry Cassreino, formerly assistant ME in Meridian and once an editor and reporter for the Madison County Journal, has taken the job. At the time of his appointment, Cassreino was serving as assistant ME at the Hattiesburg American.

Deer Creek Pilot editor Ray Mosby, one of our favorite small town newspapermen, figures in this Associated Press article (via a Canadian travelogue site) on efforts to attract tourists to West Mississippi and the Delta. Mosby recently persuaded local readers to form an economic development and tourism organization. In addition to the Muddy Waters connection, Mosby says the area offers the “best public hunting and fishing in Mississippi.”

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal Business Editor Dennis Seid is halfway around the world in Shanghai with fellow Appalachian region citizens on a trade mission to China.

The Pilot in Southern Pines, N.C. paid a recent visit to the Sea Coast Echo in Bay St. Louis, where, despite circulation gains after the storm, publisher Randy Ponder says the paper is still plagued by a dearth of advertising and the lack of employment candidates. Nevertheless, Ponder takes the paper’s obligation to the community to heart.

The Meridian Star has been tweaking elements of its staid design and traditional news content, even offering up a Feel Good Edition for Labor Day last week. The paper was filled with mostly positive news and features, not counting, we assume, the obits on page A4. The week before, recently-installed editor Fredie Carmichael addressed a few of the other projects to freshen up the Star’s shine.

Passages and remembrances from five years ago to mark the anniversary of 9-11-01.

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal: The images of Sept. 11, 2001, are forever a part of the American consciousness. It seems both longer than five years ago and at the same time just like it was yesterday.

The Clarion-Ledger: Five years after the twins towers of the World Trade Center were knocked down by terrorists using airliners as bombs, Osama bin Laden still taunts the American people in yet another video released this week.

The Sun Herald: The terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005. The anniversary dates of two of the worst disasters in America’s history will forever be 13 days apart.

The Hattiesburg American: James Cleere, a 1964 graduate of Hattiesburg High School and father of two adult sons who was living in Des Moines, Iowa, had been sent to New York for a meeting with more than 100 colleagues from his insurance firm. During the business trip to New York, he was staying at the Marriott World Trade Center, located between the two towers. All Cleere’s family has left of him is the metal name tag he wore that final day.