Salon.com > Emily Wagster Pettus

Mississippi Rep. calls on FBI to investigate mayoral candidate’s murder

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:04:00 +0000

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi congressman on Tuesday asked the FBI to review the slaying of an openly gay mayoral candidate to determine if any federal laws might have been violated.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson's district includes Clarksdale, where Marco McMillian was running. McMillian, 34, was found slain last week in a rural area nearby.

Thompson, a Democrat, said Tuesday that he has confidence in the sheriff investigating the death but that he wants the FBI to get involved because that's what McMillian's family wants.

"If another set of eyes looking at it would provide additional information, I think it would be helpful to the McMillian family," Thompson told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

An FBI spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment after hours.

McMillian's campaign had said he was one of the first openly gay, viable candidates for public office in Mississippi.

Coahoma County sheriff's spokesman Will Rooker said the investigation continues and authorities are looking at all possibilities, including whether hate crime laws would apply.

Obama’s spill recovery chief will be part-time

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:32:45 +0000

President Barack Obama's point man charting a new future for the oil-poisoned Gulf Coast will do the job part-time. Some environmentalists said the job demands someone's full attention.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who oversees 900,000 Navy and Marine personnel, is inheriting an amorphous second job as the Obama administration's leader of long-term environmental and economic planning. His task is no less than rebuilding a region still suffering after Hurricane Katrina and beset by decades of environmental problems.

Mabus won't resign from his Navy job. When President George W. Bush picked Donald Powell to lead the recovery after Hurricane Katrina, Powell resigned as head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

"The president talked to the governor about this, and they both agreed that he had the ability to do both," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday after Mabus met with Obama at the White House.

That prompted quick criticism from the Defenders of Wildlife, which is working to save animals from the oil that has gushed from an offshore BP oil well for nearly two months.

Haley Barbour: BP’s $20 billion might hurt, not help

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:31:00 +0000

Mississippi's governor said Wednesday he's not sure the federal government should have made BP put $20 billion into escrow to compensate victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill because the company needs it to drill more wells and make money so it can pay up.

President Barack Obama insisted BP set the money aside, and the company agreed to put $5 billion a year into the fund for the next four years.

"If they take a huge amount of money and put it in an escrow account so they can't use it to drill oil wells and produce revenue, are they going to be able to pay us?" Gov. Haley Barbour told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Millions of gallons of oil have gushed into the Gulf since a BP well ruptured eight weeks ago off the Louisiana coast.

"We need them to generate revenue to be able to pay us," said Barbour, a Republican. "I worry that this escrow account reduces the chance of that rather than increasing the chances of that."

Barbour said he has "no objection" to Obama's decision to appoint former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus to develop a long-term Gulf Coast Restoration Plan. Obama said BP will pay for the plan, and Mabus is to work with local communities to develop it.