InkBlots

The Sun Herald on Tuesday made public the videotaped beating of a Harrison County jail inmate whose death 18 months ago spawned a federal investigation and a growing list of civil lawsuits. Related editorial.

A roundup of press reports and editorials surrounding the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Aug. 29, 2005:

• The Sun-Herald lists area services and programs marking the anniversary.
• The Clarion-Ledger editorializes: “New condos and casinos are towering along the Coast here in Mississippi. Jobs are flourishing, federal money has been promised and, much of it, delivered. There is an air of promise. But, unfortunately, for thousands of Mississippians that air has gone stale: Promises have gone on for too long, and results have been slow, if at all.”
• An editorial in USA Today cautions against “subsidizing the next disaster,” as it suggests Rep. Gene Taylor’s proposal to expand the National Flood Insurance Program would: “Gulf Coast residents deserve the nation’s sympathy and assistance in putting their lives back together. But the answers lie elsewhere: in new kinds of construction and innovative building codes that reduce risk; in returning vulnerable seashore to a natural state; and in aid to the thousands still displaced by the storm.”

A native Oklahoman now living in Anonymous, Mississippi writes a letter home for a former teacher and Ada Evening News columnist to “read and savor” about the “blatant prejudice” she encounters since moving to the Magnolia State and what is characterized as an epidemic of private academies.

“So, the seeds of hatred and bigotry are constantly being planted, watered and nurtured,” letter-writer “Maureen” dutifully, breathlessly and perhaps apocryphally reports.

Look for the scathing assessment in the second half of the column.

Crystal Dupre, publisher of The Meridian Star, spent a portion of last week in the clear blue skies above Meridian in a T-45 training jet.

American Journalism Review, the influential but financially troubled media journal, could face a shutdown by year’s end.

The Leader-Call has added no fewer than four new members to its newsroom team.

Jenny Humphryes, after a two-year absence, will return next month to the Greenwood Commonwealth as managing editor. She has most recently served as editor of The Messenger in Troy, Ala. William Browning, who has family ties in Greenwood, joined the newspaper last week as news editor.

It took 30 years and a crafty Capuchin to do it, but another story may have actually eclipsed the perennial, obligatory observance of the Elvis’ death. Oliver the Adventurous, by the way, now has his own MySpace page.

A cursory search of Google turned up 260 news articles about Oliver.  Alas, Elvis worshippers needn’t fear: The term “Elvis anniversary” yielded over a 1,000 articles.

Six-term Congressman Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) stunned his home state Thursday and caught many in the press off guard by announcing he won’t run for reelection in 2008.

A lot of ink spilled in the morning papers and online…

• Laura Hipp of The Clarion-Ledger has the round-up of the announcement and possible post-Pickering scenarios. 
• “I have a window of opportunity to maximize my time, influence and participation in the lives of my five sons now ages 8 to 17,” Pickering, 44, said in a news release. “Time is the one element I can never recover or regain. Being a father is one of life’s greatest callings...”
• Sid Salter blogs about an opportunity Pickering once passed over to remain in Congress and keep drawing its pittance-by-comparison of a salary.
• The posters at Yall dissect the meaning of Pickering’s decision and prognosticate its implications. Cottonmouth handicaps the potential contestants to succeed the Congressman.

The DeSoto Appeal has named Richard Mathauer, former ad director for the Memphis Business Journal, as its new associate publisher.