The Greenwood Commonwealth from Greenwood, Mississippi • Page 1

Investigators complete MSU Pell grant review, page 10 TC3E GREENWOOD (2) nl UU vU JVJ No.199 Greenwood, Friday, August 22, 1997 500 0 Local sdhcbls Tall short on state tests Coast, northeast fare well on ACT I lass Choir I a reenwood Mass Choir Jenwood BY THE NUMBERS A breakdown of test results, based on a computer study by the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, CARROLL COUNTY: Algebra 1, 289.2; U.S. history, 293.8; Functional Literacy, 786.2 GREENWOOD: Algebra 1, 284.5; U.S. history, 283.5; Functional Literacy, 763.5 LEFLORE COUNTY: Algebra 1, 287.5; U.S. history, 286.0; Functional Literacy, 786.5 STATE AVERAGE: Algebra 1, 300; U.S. history, 300; Functional Literacy, 808.7 STATE PASSING SCORES: Algebra 1 287.5; U.S.

history, 287.5; Functional Literacy, na. Scores will affect accreditation Another battery of statewide school tests has put Leflore and Greenwood schools at the bottom of the list. The state Department of Education gave students a new U.S. history test last year, taken primarily by llth-graders. The test will soon be used in setting accreditation levels.

In addition, results were listed for a new Algebra I exam, taken by eighth-graders, and the Functional Literacy Test, taken by llth-graders. In preliminary results from the history test, Leflore County High School was listed at the 280.8 level, in the bottom 10 schools for the state. Greenwood High School's score of 284.5 on Algebra I was lower than the passing mark, according to pre-liminry results. In the Functional Literacy Exam results, Greenwood High School and Leflore County High School both were in the bottom 10. Tishomingo and South Tippah.

Oxford Separate School District posted the highest score in the area, with a total composite of 21.8 on the test, which is designed to help determine the likelihood of college success. Tupelo students had a total positeof20.8. In Ocean Springs, the average ACT score for students enrolled in college-prep classes is 23.4. Long Beach students taking college-prep courses scored an average 23, the state's fifth-best score among 153. Some educators warned, however, that ACT scores can at times be misleading indicators.

By The Associated Press High school students in northeast Mississippi- and on the coast were among the top scorers on the 1996-97 American College Test. The national average ACT score is 21 this year, according to statistics from the state Department of Education, In Mississippi, average scores are 18.6 overall, based upon data released from the state Department of Education on Thursday. Northeast Mississippi districts included in the Top 10 are Oxford, Tupelo, Corinth, Pontotoc City, Fire destroys shed, farm equipment nW Jiff tt. 7 J- Volunteer fireman Don Toomey of Money pours water over an equipment shed consumed by fire shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday Planting Co.

shop on Money Road. Toomey, a farmer, was among firefighters who came from Greenwood and Itta Bena as well as Money to extinguish the fire, which also a large farm truck. LaKlsha Cockhren, 13, an Amanda Elzy Junior High School student who lives in a nearby house, said she and Sheila Williams, 19, saw the fire, called 91 1 and then noticed two tractors next to the shed. LaK-isha ran to find farm employee A.C. Brister, who moved them before they were damaged.

The fire was sparked by wind fanning nearby burning trash, authorities said. js choir will present is program at 4 p.m. at the Leflore County Civic Center, as a benefit for the Sunflower-Humphreys Counties Progress Inc. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. The choir regularly appears at the top of the list of the popular gospel music charts.

It is based in Jackson. MVSUabestbuy, magazine reports In its 11th annual America's Best Colleges issue and guidebook, U.S. News has named Mississippi Valley State University as the second best regional liberal arts college in the South, MVSU officials report. The quality rankings will appear in the Sept. 1 issue of the magazine which will be available at newsstands on Aug.

25. MVSU was chosen based on its attributes in areas such as academic reputation, retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving. Empowerment zone sets education program The Community Educators of the Mid-Delta Empowerment 1 Zone Alliance are sponsoring a three-day Empowerment Insti- tute for persons interested in becoming certified as Community Educators. The sessions will begin Thursday, Sept 4, with registration and a community forum beginning at 6:30 pjn. at the Isola City Hall.

This forum is open to the public. The institute will continue on Friday and Saturday, with Jeanne Middleton, professor of education at Millsaps College serving as lead facilitator. Upon completion of the certification program, each community educator will be awarded a certificate. Company announces earnings grow National Picture Frame Co. has announced that earnings for its first quarter of the fiscal 1998, which ended July 31, grew 15 percent to 15 cents per share, compared to 13 cents for same period a year ago.

Operating incomes for the quarter was nearly $1.3 million, up from $1.15 million a year earlier. For the fiscal year which ended April 30, National generated $73.36 million in net sales. Headquartered in Greenwood, National Picture Frame is a leading manufacturer and marketer of picture frames, framed mirrors and framed art sold primarily through mass-market retailers. Man gets life sentence after murder plea TUPELO (AP) Michael Wayne Wilburn has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to the 1996 killing of an Itawamba County woman. Wilburn, 32, entered the plea Thursday before Lee County Circuit Judge Thomas Gardner.

The plea came two weeks bt fore his scheduled Sept 8 trial for capital murder in the death of Lfla Jean Hood. Wilburn was charged in the February 1996 shooting death and robbery of Mrs. Hood in the Ratliff community. He escaped from jail in August 1995 and was captured in Tennessee. v.

U1 Susan Montgomery Carroll officials say McCarley bombing case put to rest MilW now a regional director for the Missis incident, and all students at Pillow Academy. sheriff of Attala County. By SUSIE JAMES For the CommonweUjE McCAKLEY Did law enforcement officials solve last year's McCarley bombing case? Yes, says Al Malone, who served as sheriff of Carroll County when a blast blew in panes of glass in the old Leper's Store and also blew a vending machine to bits hours before the sun rose Saturday, Aug. 31, 1996. During the weeks following the blast, Malone hinted that he and his staff, along with Billy Hancock, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Wayne One of the suspects was a Carroll County resident; the others were from Leflore County, according to Malone.

The homemade bomb was placed behind the flap of a vending machine chained to the front of Leper's Store, where it detonated. The machine was being leased as a money-making venture for some McCarley teens, and reportedly was worth from between The owner of Leper's Store, an elderly McCarley woman, said the incident "is best forgotten they made a bad mistake," she said. "Itfs over." Quizzed about the old case during a trip to the Carrollton courthouse recently, where he had just finished a morning's session of chancery court, Malone said he'd anticipated the bombing case would be presented to a grand jury in May but was told by District Attorney Doug Evans the case was on hold. Federal officials, Malone said, decided they hadn't an appropriate statute, short of one that carries a penalty of from "25 years to life" in prison. The suspects, according to Malone, were six young men, all 16 -years-old at the time of the sippi Highway Safety Patrol's Criminal Investigation Bureau, had solid leads and were awaiting results of laboratory studies.

But little has apparently happened since. The story seemed to dwindle into nothing, lost in the next day's larger stories. After all, no deaths or serious injuries apparently were attributed to the blast on the porch of the vacant store, which jolted residents of the tiny hamlet out of their beds. Malone, who served as interim sheriff from April 30, 1996-Nov. 20, 1996, is a McCarley resident a retired park ranger and former Check cashers target low-income people Church News 6,7 Classifieds 11-14 Comics 9 Community -Calendar 3 Deaths 2 Editorials 4 NationWorld 8 People 2 PoliceFire 2 Sports 10,11 State News 5 greater need of effective consumer protections," said Jean Ann Fox, the group's director of consumer protection.

In addition to cashing checks, selling money orders and making short-term bans, the businesses also accept payments of utility bills, distribute welfare checks and food stamps, and sell money transfers, telephone debit cards, postage stamps and lottery tickets. "People come to professional check cashers for the convenience of location, flexible operating hours and excellent service, the check cashers association said in a statement The trade group cited a poll conducted for the Consumer Bankers Association showing that 67 percent of all check-cashing customers also do business with banks. Brobeck, executive director of the consumer group, said more than half of black and Hispanic households either have no accounts or very small deposits with banks, thrifts or credit unions. Increasingly, these people are turning to check cashers, often located in low-income and minority neighborhoods but which have recently expanded into suburban areas. There are now about 6,000 outlets in the United States, cashing more than 200 million checks a year worth some $55 billion, according to the National Check Cashers Association.

Only 18 states regulate check cashers and only 12 of them impose caps on the fees they charge, the Consumer Federation said. "No area of financial services is in check-cashing outlets, which often are open longer hours than banks. The consumer group, which surveyed 111 check-cashing outlets in 23 of the nation's largest urban areas, found that fees for cashing a paycheck ranged from 1 percent to 6 percent and averaged 2.34 percent Fees for personal checks ranged from 1.85 percent to 16 percent, averaging 9.36 percent In a fast-growing sideline, some check-cashing operations also make loans to customers on postr dated personal checks to tide them over until their next pay day, at interest rates equivalent to 261 percent to 913 percent a year, the survey found. Some 12 million American families cannot afford to maintain regular bank accounts, according to the Treasury Department Stephen WASHINGTON (AP) Around the turn of the century, agents known as "salary buyers" would lend strapped workers a few dollars, then recoup the short-term loan plus a substantial fee when the workers were paid. These a consumer group contends, many low-income Americans are being subjected to the same sort of practice by the growing ranks of neighborhood check-cashing businesses.

The Consumer Federation of America, releasing a survey Thursday, also said consumers forced by rising bank fees to turn to the storefront outlets are getting soaked with excessive charges to cash their checks there. A trade group representing the industry countered that many consumers prefer the convenience of The nq Weather jj Tonight should be partly cloudy with a low temperature in the mid 60s. Saturday should be partly sunny with a high temperature in the upper 80s. Spag2.