Davis in Southaven; Childers in Congress

Memphis Commercial Appeal - Audit reveals $5.2 million surplus for Southaven - Economic woes don't appear to be affecting the City of Southaven's bottom line so far. The city's annual audit shows a surplus of $5.2 million for fiscal 2007, about $2.2 million of which is already committed to ongoing projects. Mayor Greg Davis presented the financial report at Tuesday's Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting. The report was prepared by the accounting firm of Williams, Pitts and Beard of Hernando. Davis told aldermen the city is in good enough shape that it has used about $3.2 million in cash to fund its capital improvement projects rather than issuing bonds to finance them. The improvement projects include renovating the old M.R. Davis Library and performing upgrades at Snowden Grove Park. Major expenditures for the city included $14 million for public safety. Sales taxes remained the largest single revenue item at $11 million, and Southaven Towne Center was credited with the continued growth in sales tax revenue for the city.

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Sun Herald Washington Bureau - House bill breaks logjam on rebuilding public housing
Removes HUD, FEMA conflict - Just two weeks after a critical joint House committee hearing, the House on Wednesday approved a bill to break a federal impasse on rebuilding public housing after a disaster. The bill, which was done on a bipartisan basis and passed on a voice vote, removes a conflict between FEMA and the Housing and Urban Development Administration over funding. The Public Housing Disaster Relief Act, (H.R. 6276), would remove the HUD program to make way for the FEMA funding. Newly elected U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, R-Miss., who was a floor manager of the bill, said it represented "a common sense approach" to remove the barrier that "has stalled federal dollars" from being used to rebuild the Coast after Hurricane Katrina. House Financial Institutions Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said, "This is no special deal for Louisiana and Mississippi. This simply provides public housing's fair share."