A low pressure system preceded by rain, winds and hail brought cooler weather to the Vicksburg/Warren County area dropping temperatures to the 70s and low to mid-80s and nighttime temperatures into the upper 40s and 50s.
The Mississippi River was at 12.72 feet Oct. 11. It was at 21.33 feet Friday. Flood stage is 43 feet.

Former Warren County Circuit Clerk Shelly Ashley-Palmertree reported to state custody Wednesday to begin serving a five-year prison sentence for embezzlement. Palmertree, 44, is expected to serve her sentence at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County. She is still involved in a $1.04 million civil case involving payments above the state’s salary cap for circuit and chancery clerks and questionable payments to her father and predecessor in office, Larry Ashley.

Despite keeping a grade of “D” on the Mississippi Department of Education school district evaluations, officials with the Vicksburg Warren School District said schools showed improvements in several areas. Overall, the district showed a 24-point increase, with about 72 percent of the schools being rated C or higher.
In other school district news, the district finished the 2014 fiscal year with an $1.12 million surplus, reversing an earlier projected $7 million deficit. The surplus was announced at a special meeting of the Board of Trustees to approve an amended budget to close the fiscal year.

A Bogue Chitto woman was killed and her husband hospitalized after their motorcycle crashed on Interstate 20. Geri Ann Smith, 63, a passenger on the westbound motorcycle driven by her husband, Johnnie Smith Jr., was killed when the motorcycle left the highway and struck a ditch ejecting them. Johnnie Smith Jr. was flown to University of Mississippi Medical Center.

The city’s Architectural Review Board for the second time in six months denied an application from the Warren County Board of Supervisors to demolish the Verhine building at 1015 Adams St. and the old justice court building at 1019 Adams St.

Kenny Cordell Stewart of Vicksburg was sentenced to 22 years in prison after being convicted of molesting a third-grader. Stewart, 30, was found guilty of sexual battery of a child under 14 and molestation.

A Brandon woman who shot her husband four times at his Bovina home pleaded guilty to attempted murder. Mary Lou Neely, 59, attempted to kill her estranged husband, Billy Joe Neely, on Dec. Dec. 2 at his home at 103
Deer Circle. The couple was going through a divorce. Circuit Judge James M. Chaney set sentencing for Oct. 20.

Local deaths included Karen L. Hudson Thornton, Edmonia Stella Mae Howard Robinson, Robert Hall, J.C. Reeves, Roselie Becker, Othel Mendrop, Tracy Michelle Dupree and Sylvester Pinkney.