Sulligent will put its tradition against Red Bay

Two girls basketball programs rich in tradition will meet at 7 tonight when the Sulligent Lady Blue Devils play host to Red Bay in the Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 2A Northwest Sub-Regional Tournament.

West Alabama boys basketball teams gearing up for next games

Russ Wallace respects any team that beats R.C. Hatch.

R.C. Hatch has won 10 state championships, including consecutive championships from 2006-08.

Sykes working hard to rediscover shooting tough

For much of the season, April Sykes’ shooting has been as cold as the frigid and snowy weather in Piscataway, N.J.

The 6-foot sophomore guard/forward on the Rutgers University women’s basketball team is shooting just 29 percent entering a home game tonight against Seton Hall.

Sykes, a 2008 graduate of East Oktibbeha High School in Crawford, has struggled of late, making 1 of 5 shots against South Florida on Saturday and missing all 10 of her attempts the previous game against Notre Dame.

David Creel: Saving and beauty can go hand in hand

If green is truly the new black, and since everyone from my 71-year-old mama to my 17-year-old niece begins ands ends every conversation talking about saving money, then 2010 could very well be the year for smart shopping. And that’s nothing to blush about.

David Creel: Every day can be a good hair day

With hundreds, if not thousands, of hairstylists chiseling, combing and coiffing the locks of ladies from the small town barber shops and beauty parlors to the swankiest of “citified” salons and image studios, I ask myself the same question that lots of first-time clients have asked me. Underwhelmed or downright displeased with their last cut, they sit in a new stylist’s chair and ask: “Why can’t I get a good haircut?”

Rob Hardy: A history of service

From Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” to Robert Altman’s “Gosford Park,” the English country house plays a role in the imagination as it has in English society and history. It is a role that has changed greatly over the centuries, as has the role of the servants who ran the places.

Thinks school uniform debate misguided

I wanted to thank The Dispatch for its coverage of the current Starkville School District uniform debate. It has turned out to be a sensitive issue in the community. I can honestly say, it has made me and many other parents realize we need to be paying better attention to what is happening in our own backyard — and this means attention to bigger issues than uniforms. I thought I was doing enough by helping out in my son’s class when needed, participating in fundraisers, etc., but I was wrong, and I am embarrassed by my lack of involvement.

City dubs Feb. 14-20 School board Recognition Week

The Columbus school board breezed through a half-hour meeting Monday that consisted largely of photo opportunities.

Five-year-old dies in Webster County crash

MATHISTON — A single-vehicle crash just north of Mathiston killed a 5-year-old boy and sent the driver to the hospital.

Starkville to offer public forum on uniforms

Parents will have an opportunity to share their opinions on school uniforms at a 6 p.m. public forum Thursday at the Greensboro Center.

Catfish in the Alley 2010 Photos & Video

Catfish in the Alley took place on Catfish Alley on February 5 & 6 in Columbus, MS

Couple attacked with knife, hammer in home; suspect could be escaped inmate

A Columbus couple was stabbed and attacked with a hammer by a man they found inside their home Monday, and a Lowndes County parolee who is at large after skipping out on a 48-hour pass may be connected, police said.

State considers allowing ads on school buses

Those traditional yellow school buses might soon be decorated with advertising, if some Mississippi lawmakers get their way.

Taggers spray-paint more than a dozen cars in downtown Columbus

At least a dozen cars and trucks south of downtown Columbus, mostly along Third Avenue South, were marked with black and orange spray paint late Saturday night.

Roses and thorns 2-7-10

Mississippi University for Women supporters; New Hope High School junior Meredith Barefield; Columbus Cultural Heritage Foundation; Gen. Joseph Fant; and Kabir Karriem and other organizers of the Seventh Avenue Festival.

Shannon Bardwell: Life’s not a picnic

In my family, life was a picnic. Everything we did as a family somehow revolved around eating. As a young girl my dad would take me to hunting camp with him and the extended family. Everyone was loaded in jeeps and pickups; each hunter supplied with a brown paper bag filled with breakfast biscuits (the homemade kind) sausage, ham, cheese, assorted snacks and a thermos of hot coffee.

David Creel: P.S.: I Love Me

The human heart is conditioned to feel love for others on Valentine’s Day and to express it in numerous ways — a hand-picked bouquet of flowers, a heartfelt sentiment scribbled inside a card, or chocolates.

Let them eat cake

Steve Mullen (in his Wednesday column) finds it odd that MUW Alumnae send cakes to Mississippi legislators, and he wonders what the secret ingredient might be.

Inaccurate assertions

This is in response to a letter from Raymond Gross that was published in “Voice of the People” on Friday, Jan. 29.

Takes issue with letter writer

Mr. Gross states that President Obama has frozen the cola increases for Social Security recipients for 2010 and 2011 (Voice of the people, Jan. 29 The worst one-termers). He did not.