Baptist Memorial Hospital hosting blood drive

If you have blood and are in the giving mood, you could consider being a donor today.

Until 5 p.m., Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle is hosting a blood drive.

Tashiro goes from kamikaze to comrade

Paul Tashiro is from Japan and in 1945, he wanted to die for the emperor.

He was 13 years old and Japanese children were taught that to die for their country was the highest honor. Japan was in a fight with the United States then, so Tashiro volunteered and began flight school to train as a kamikaze pilot.

Gas line leak leads to Artesia evacuation

Approximately 200 residents were evacuated from their homes in Artesia earlier this morning after a suspected gas line break.

Browning on business: Local pizza place changing things up

We begin with two items coming from 18th Avenue North in Columbus.

You may have noticed that CJ’s Pizza in Towne Square has been closed this week. Here’s why: the owners of the pizzeria and CJ’s Italian Bistro are combining the restaurants. Beginning next week it will be one restaurant: CJ’s Pizza & Bistro.

Mayor’s downtown luncheon keeps growing

A crowd showed up at the Trotter Convention Center in downtown Columbus on Tuesday.

The occasion was Mayor Robert Smith’s annual Thanksgiving luncheon, which ran from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event honored area resident 55 years of age or older.

Starkville home to largest solar array in Mississippi

For years and years the guys behind Synergetics were interested in solar power but never pulled the trigger.

The biggest hurdle: cost. It just wasn’t financially feasible for the Starkville-based information technology company, which was founded in 1992 and employs almost 50 people.

“We didn’t want to be green for the sake of being green,” David Palmer, the company’s 45-year-old CEO, said.

A career spent in the stacks

She always loved reading.

So much so that when she was a child her father, a Methodist minister, would make jokes about how impossible it was to get her nose out of books. Despite that teasing, Mary Helen Waggoner never left books behind. She grew up and became a librarian.

Browning on business: Downtown Columbus getting something new

About a month ago, Dan Bennett, a local eye doctor, and his wife, Kim, purchased the building at 513 Main St. Planning is ongoing, so nothing has been finalized, but Kim Bennett said she and her husband are “99 percent sure” they will rent the 3,000 square feet out to a restaurateur.

Rice returns to Crawford for special ceremony

A NFL Hall of Fame player and Mississippi gridiron legend will be honored this week in Crawford.

Jerry Rice, a Crawford native who played 20 seasons in the NFL will be honored at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in his hometown during a special program called “Hometown Hall Of Famers” at East Oktibbeha County High School.

KiOR optimistic despite third-quarter loss

KiOR on Thursday reported a third quarter net loss of $43.1 million, or 40 cents per share. This is a $4.6 million increase in net loss from the year’s second quarter.

The third quarter ended Sept. 30.

Browning on Business: Columbus eyes corridor improvement project on Hwy. 45

This is the first of what will be a weekly column appearing in The Dispatch each Thursday. The tone will be laidback, the news will be accurate and the topic will always be about business happenings in the Golden Triangle.

Caledonia has new water supe to begin later this month

The town of Caledonia is getting a new water and sewage department head.

Barrett Baggett, chosen to be the department’s new superintendent, is slated to begin work on Nov. 18. He will take over for Benny Coleman, who is retiring early next year.

Picking persimmons in Sessums

David Reese, who is 59 and soft-spoken, has for almost three decades operated Reese Orchard in Sessums, a rural community in east Oktibbeha County.

There is a sign where customers drive up that says, “Welcome. Please use intercom or honk,” because a lot of times Reese is out and about on the orchard. It is mostly a one-man operation.

West Point electric customers to have outage tonight

Every customer of West Point Water & Light will be without electricity for roughly five hours tonight while the Tennessee Valley Authority does maintenance work.

Ghosts of Columbus: With Halloween upon us, a look at area hauntings

Among the unknown Confederate soldiers buried beneath Magnolia trees in Friendship Cemetery last week, Matt Garner took a picture at sunrise.

It was dark when he arrived. A page designer for The Dispatch, Garner often visits the cemetery in his off time to take photographs.

Severstal exec gives update on Columbus steel operation

Severstal Columbus, a steel plant in Lowndes County, sits on roughly 1,400 acres just east of the Golden Triangle Regional Airport. But what do they actually do there?

Madhu Ranade, the plant’s vice president and general manager, answered that question while speaking to the Columbus Rotary Club at the Lion Hills Golf Club on Tuesday.

King for a day, an inspiration for life: New Hope homecoming king helps family endure tragic losses

Every morning without fail, before Peter Jones Jr., catches the bus bound for New Hope High School, he hugs his father and mother.

For Peter it’s a simple act of affection. For his parents it is that and more. His father teared up last week talking about his son’s hugs.

“I’m an emotional type of guy anyway,” Peter Sr. said. “But especially when it comes to my son.”

Old Omnova site adding new tenants

In July, Stuart Millner bought the 700,000 square foot structure that once housed Omnova Solutions Inc. in east Columbus.

Caledonia to interview 7 for top water job

Caledonia Water Superintendent Benny Coleman is planning on retiring early next year and the Board Of Aldermen is taking steps to find his replacement.

KiOR receives financial backing for Columbus II

KiOR, which announced last month its intention to build a second biorefinery in Columbus, has secured the funding it needs to move forward with the plan.