Despite its industrial might, Jackson County preserves one of the state’s great agricultural traditions: the county fair.

Nothing could be more meaningful than what Scott Pfaff’s own students said after he received the $25,000 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award last week.

Perhaps it was the proximity of Halloween, but the consensus at the quarterly meeting of the Sun Herald’s Business Roundtable last week was that, while it may be tricky, 2010 could be a treat for South Mississippians.

MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST For whatever reason it now appears that thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of the residents of Galveston Island, and untold others along the Texas Coast have chosen to stay and face the wrath of Hurricane Ike. As your neighbors in South Mississippi, who have watched the deadly surge of Katrina destroy virtually every mile of our coast, we care for your survival, and beg you to leave now. You should know further that in a nighttime storm your chances will be further reduced.

Why is the Jackson County Board of Supervisors urging Congress not to tamper with with a multibillion-dollar defense contract that will benefit Mobile?

Joseph P. “Jody” Compretta Jr., who was killed in a tragic accident while celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans over the weekend, was a key participant in the recovery of Bay St. Louis and Hancock County. At 39, Compretta had already served two terms as president of the county’s Chamber of Commence and was serving as president of its Community Development Foundation.

One of the things that the Federal Emergency Management Agency manages is the National Flood Insurance Program. One of the most critical aspects of that program is the adoption of flood insurance rate maps.

Four years ago this month, the Sun Herald published a three-part series titled “Paradise in Peril: Preserving the Pascagoula.”

Bobby Jindal says the first thing he will do as governor of Louisiana when he takes office in January is summon lawmakers to Baton Rouge “to pass real ethics reform with real teeth.”

Befitting a military installation, there is a cadence to the command of Keesler Air Force Base. The commander usually stays around for a couple of years and usually wears a newly acquired star upon arrival or departure.

There is a particular sadness with which we consider the offensive launched against Mississippi survivors of Hurricane Katrina on the very somber second anniversary of the awful day in which the great storm devastated our state and caused a civil engineering failure of vast and deadly proportions in Louisiana.

“Modular” and “manufactured” are mere words. Adherence to building codes is what matters. But as we have learned since Hurricane Katrina, building codes should not be set in stone. As conditions and technologies change, so should the codes.