Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 23

LET US KNOW YOUR IDEA5 Know someone who makes your neighborhood better? Have a story idea? Phone Jon Broadbooks or Shirley Schofield at: mmm-mmmm JACKSON-AREA DEATHS 2 BUSINESS 4 STOCKS 6-7 THE CLARION-LEDGER JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1995 dusted Briggs not dwelling on strategy of failed campaign a Rrimra Uv umiq olwtjwl his land deals had been run nast the attnr- Mnsernve and Eddie Briees a better iob into it in 1996. Briees said he would like Briggs, 45, was elected his land deals had been run past the attor Musgrove and Eddie Briggs a better job into it in 1996. Briggs said he would like But lieutenant governor says funding to increase every year so college educations could be made available to more refusal to debate challenger was not a deciding factor. hJ si A1 'jL- By Jack Elliott Jr. Tha Associated Press in 1991 as Mississippi's first Republican lieutenant governor this century.

He was defeated Nov. 7 by Democrat Ronnie Mus-grove, a state senator from Batesville, who won by a 52-48 percent margin. Musgrove, in the closing weeks of the cam of communicating, he said. Briggs, who jumped to the GOP after eight years as a Democrat in the state Senate, also said there was "my failure to be as attractive to conservative voters" as Fordice. Briggs may not be out of politics altogether.

He said he is going home to DeKalb to his law practice and successful automobile dealerships. Regardless, Briggs said he has left behind some good things for Mississippi: A college tuition assistance program. Lawmakers put $19 million into the program this year and plan to put $20 million ney general orhce. "I don't think either one of those things were deciding factors in the campaign," Briggs said. Briggs said voters rarely remember anything from debates.

He said one debate between Gov. Kirk Fordice and Democratic challenger Dick Molpus is remembered only for the "I'll whip your ass" comment that Molpus claims Fordice made. Briggs said debates are "a creature" of the news media and seldom result in anything of substance. "I think if I had the campaign to do over, I would do a better job of contrasting Ronnie people. Expansion of a small business loan program that he said has created 3,000 new jobs since 1994.

The initiative process, which allows voters to petition state government for changes in the Mississippi Constitution. A move to basing budgeting on the performance of agencies. Briggs said the practical effect is protection for taxpayers' dollars by defining what agencies should be doing and how well they are doing it. Briggs Eddie Briggs won't dwell on the "what ifs" from his failed bid for a second term as lieutenant governor. But he does realize that he might have changed some methods of doing things.

"Of course, if we had to do the campaign over again, we'd do a number of things differently," Briggs said in a telephone paign, criticized Briggs for refusing to debate and failing to disclose his income, including land and timber deals. Briggs shrugged off the criticism, saying Musgrove had no program.to debate and all Mentally ill man missing following release from jail Owner of the personal care home where he lived had wanted to pick him up. By Jimmle) Gates Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer A man with a history of mental problems has been missing since the Hinds County Sheriffs Department released him Wednesday evening in downtown Jackson, his family says. Larry Herron, 28, was brought from the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond and released in the garage of the downtown Detention Center in Jackson, said his sister, Jeanette Bennett Herron had been in the Raymond detention center since September on a simple assault charge filed by another patient at the personal care home in Jackson 1 in" IT7 r- -i 1 I I 4 A A I where the two lived. A judge ordered him released Wednesday, and since then neither his family nor the personal care home has heard from him.

"We are frantic. We've just got to find him," Bennett said of her brother. She said Herron, who has a history of mental illness, was living in the Spirit of Life personal care home. Without his medication, Herron is 1 Herron Greg Jonson The Clarion-Ledger Vicksburg police use a Mississippi Highway Patrol missing furniture heiress Jacqueline Levitz on Fri- clues. The back yard of Levitz's house faces the helicopter to search the area around of the house of day in Vicksburg.

The aerial search yielded no new Mississippi River. a1 cfi) AM 1 rest" Vicksburg Police Chief Robert Dowe Jr. said afterward. "We had to fly over and check the area to see if there was anything the residential areas, the river area and the area around the streets." Officers from the Vicksburg Police Department and the Warren County Sheriffs Department earlier had scoured roads in the area prone to seizures that may include undressing, running house to house and lying in the street. "We don't want people to think he is on drugs and hurt him," said Mattie Washington, another sister.

Jimmie Jennings, the owner of the personal care home, said she called the Sheriffs Department to inquire about Herron and to tell them not to release him on the streets after his court date. "We had transportation to pick him up," Jennings said. "I called Wednesday and no one returned my calls. They had a nonchalant attitude, like they didn't care." Sheriff Malcolm McMillin said Friday that he knew nothing about the Herron case. He said the department's record office was closed for the holiday and would reopen Monday.

"I think procedure was followed. We have no authority to keep anyone after a judge tells us to release an individual," McMillin said. The sheriff said many inmates, like Herron, have a history of mental problems. Bennett said she has filed a missing-person report on her brother with the Jackson Police Department. Family members were circulating his picture Friday, hoping someone will see him.

"We're just hoping for the best," Bennett said. Herron is described as being about 130 pounds, 5 feet 6, with dark black, curly hair and a front tooth missing. His family says anyone who sees him should call Bennett 366-9158, the personal care home at 355-8102, or the Jackson Police Department at 960-1234. Levitx Relatives became alarmed when they were unable to reach Levitz by phone Nov. 18 and 19.

A brother-in-law, James Earl Shivers of Tallulah, on Monday found a door unlocked and a television on. Investigators found blood on a bedroom carpet, blood soaked into a mattress and evidence someone had tried to clean up in a bathroom. Levitz, who married Ralph Levitz in 1987, was widowed in March. Ralph Levitz left the bulk of his furniture store fortune, estimated in excess of $15 million, to his wife; he had one son, Phillip, who was next in line of inheritance. Jacqueline Levitz has a son, Walter Bolton III of Clinton, and eight brothers and sisters.

Friends said she tired of the lifestyle of the rich and famous she led in Palm Beach, Fla and moved to Mississippi to return to her Southern roots. "She wanted to blend in with the ways of the South," said Betty Moody, who sold Levitz her Vicksburg home. Officials hoped to spot body or bloody sheets believed taken from home. From Staff and Wire Reports VICKSBURG After a Friday helicopter search provided no leads in the disappearance of millionaire heiress Jacqueline Levitz, city and county authorities said they would seek help from the FBI. Levitz, 62, a former secretary and beauty queen who became a fixture on the Palm Beach, social scene, was last seen Nov.

18 at her Vicksburg home. "We're still prayingthat she's alive," Warren County Sheriff Paul Barrett said. "But I've worked many murders in my 28 years as sheriff, and as much blood as we found on her bed, I'm afraid she's not." Local authorities used a state Highway Patrol helicopter in a nearly three-hour search that failed to locate the woman's body or the bloody sheets in which they believe she was wrapped when she apparently was taken from her home. "We feel like we had to do this to put our minds to looking for clues. Dowe said they would do so again through the weekend.

Dowe said it was "unusual that we haven't found anything. From the evidence at the scene, we suspect foul play. The blood at the scene indicates that we are probably investigating a homicide." Dowe said he and Barrett would meet Monday with FBI agents. "They can help us," the sheriff said Friday. "They can talk to people in Florida and in California that we can't talk to and we need to talk to." Barricades at railroad crossing to stay up for now, judge says Illinois Central gets injunction after City Council decides to reopen street.

By Grace Simmons Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer Calhoun said he believed the opposing residents were not given enough notice about the impending street closure. Rail officials said allowing residents to use the Stonewall crossing would be dangerous to them and railroad employees. Kenneth Robinson, risk manager with Illinois Central, testified the crossing timbers had been removed, and without them a vehicle could get caught between the rails. A vehicle-train collision could derail a train, causing injuries and evacuations, he said. Jimmie C.

Robinson, president of the Vir-den Addition Community Association, has led residents' fight to keep Stonewall open. He said the city discriminated against Virden Addition residents when it failed to notify them about the agreement. The judge said alternative routes were available to the residents and the city had deemed closing the crossing was in the public's best interest when it had jointly petitioned Mississippi Department of Transportation with the railroad to close it. MDOT granted the request. "It may save some lives to keep it closed," Nichols said.

Nichols said the only irreparable harm he saw concerning the city would be if a council member, up for re-election, lost. Council President Credell Calhoun, when asked about Nichols' decision, said, "I am going to continue to fight to give the residents the opportunity to to use the street since they are putting in the (medical) facility right around the corner (at the Jackson Mall)." crossing under the Bailey Avenue overpass. Illinois Central filed the legal action after the City Council on Oct. 24 declared the Stonewall Street crossing should remain open. The council had agreed in June 1994 to close the crossing there in a trade off to open a crossing in the Richmond Grove community, off North State Street.

"I feel the railroad has made a substantial showing of a likelihood of succeeding on the merits," Nichols said in a ruling from the bench. Nichols summarized his decision this way. It seemed all was well between the city and the railroad to close the Stonewall crossing until a group of residents complained. Because of political pressure, the city tried to get out of the agreement and seized upon the fact the City Council never formally closed the street Stonewall L. St.

1YK Railroad crossing JNjylallrjr. 'S 3 1 Jackson Mall 111 I JACKSON LJ 77 SCALE IN FEET i oop I I'S-S Jackson has lost Round 1 of a legal fight, started when the City Council, bowing to residents' complaints, reneged on a deal with Illinois Central Railroad to close a crossing. But some council members said they do not regret changing their minds and want the city to prepare for trial. U.S. Magistrate Alfred Nichols Jr.

earlier this week granted the railroad a temporary injunction to prevent the removal of barricades the railroad placed at the Stonewall Street YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES MISSISSIPPI VOICES THIS CORNER Ole Miss beats Mississippi State 7-6 at Scott Field in Starkville. The Rebels win with an aerial attack early in the first period. U.N. to honor McCarty Thursday HATTIESBURG Laundry woman Oseola McCarty is being honored again this time by the United Nations. McCarty, who made national headlines earlier this year after she donated $150,000 of her life savings to the University of Southern Mississippi, will be lauded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Thursday for her world-acclaimed contribution to education.

Jorge Werthein, a United Nations representative and director of UNESCO offices in New York, will give 87-year-old McCarty the group's Avicenna Medal during a 6:45 p.m. dinner at the Hattiesburg Country Club. McCarty has saved her earnings during a lifetime of washing and ironing other people's clothes. Friday was the legendary biggest shopping day of the year. How far along are you with holiday shopping? JACKSON "Not very far.

I'm just making a start today." Sarah Fisher, 49, aging-van transporter. CANTON "I haven't started. I'm one of those last-minute shoppers, because in my opinion you can find things just as cheap. The sales are only 1 0 or 20 percent off now and I don't see that as a bargain. I have to buy a lot of gifts for children and grandchildren about 25.

I've shopped Christmas Eve at 8 p.m., and you can really find better deals then. Check it out." Jewel Williams, 58, former social worker, businesswoman and alderwoman. PELAHATCHIE "Well, I haven't even started yet. I'm planning on leaving at 1, and I'll probably end up at the mall. I don't think I will finish today (Friday) there are a lot of people in my family." Vickie Money, 17, Pela-hatchie High 10th-grader.

To participate In Mississippi Voices, caH 362-2810 and follow instructions. Despite record revenues, Mississippi will exceed its budget this year by $20.5 million and will have to dip into a huge surplus left at the end of the past fiscal year, says Rep. Edgar Stephens of New Albany, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Pelahatchie Canton AA Jackson U.S. News and World Report, in its Nov.

25 edition, ranks Mississippi University for Women among the nation's best schools. Compiled by staff librarian Susan Garcia.