Tag Archives: mississippi

Lawsuit: Oil Spill Funds Used for Gulf Hotels

Stronger than the storm

Adding fuel to the fire is never something BP wants to do after the Gulf Coast disaster in 2010. Environmentalists have filed a lawsuit and are attempting to block the building of new hotels in Florida & Alabama with funds granted to restore the coast itself. BP had pledged $1 billion to improve the coastline after the infamous oil rig explosion, and have continued to fund the project. Now, scientists state that the money should only be used for ecological purposes, not for real estate development (regardless of the fact that new hotels could produce new revenue along the coast). This has sparked a hot debate about the strength of economics vs biological and scientific research. Read more

Handcuffs No Longer an Acceptable Punishment for Misbehavior in Mississippi Schools

The right to remain silent

One day in fourth grade, a kid in my class was misbehaving so atrociously that the teacher, in an act of desperation, enclosed him in a cardboard box on the ground for the rest of the afternoon.  At the time, it was hilarious, and it became a sort of mythical story that he and everyone else would tell well into high school and beyond.  You know, one of those jokes or memories that come up at a reunion.  Thinking about it, it was probably not the best way to treat a child, but he was being downright unruly.  I can understand that sometimes teachers just become so exasperated that they decide to break rules/morality to restore some order.  Not so in Mississippi, where, in a certain school district, it was all but encouraged to simply incapacitate out-of-line students as a first resort.

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