Small Mississippi town digs up its dirt-covered swimming pool

Some folks in Stonewall, Miss., are digging out the remains of the old city swimming pool and plan to reopen it, The New York Times says. I always heard that the Warrenton city pool at the park downtown -- now covered in grass, with just the concrete rim showing -- was closed in a similar fashion, as a means to prevent racial integration years ago (though I admit I wasn't alive then and have no proof as to whether that's accurate).

I remember running around the concrete rectangle with my classmates at Miss Sue's Wee Wisdom Kindergarten. I think the object of the game was to chase each other on the concrete and not step by accident into the grass center.

Clipper subscriptions available through Amazon.com

Just found this online and had to post it -- you can get your loved one a gift subscription to The Warrenton Clipper through, of all places, Amazon.com. Now, I haven't tried it, so I can't speak to how well it works, but if you're looking for that unique gift this Christmas and you're doing your shopping online, maybe it's a thought.

Unfamiliar feeling on Thomson Highway

Just got back a couple of days ago from a visit to Warrenton, and they have finished work on the Thomson Highway by Georgia-Pacific -- and it's the most unfamiliar feeling. They've filled in the part where the road went under the trestle, and now the roadbed is level with the train tracks, and crossing arms are supposed to stop traffic when the train comes through.

After 32 years of life going under the tracks, not over them, it's a strange and disorienting feeling to drive over the tracks and see how the topography has been altered. I'm not saying I'm for it or against it -- it's just unfamiliar.

National attention for Stillmore

It's not every day -- in fact, it's hardly ever -- that national press exposure comes to tiny Stillmore, Ga., a little town way down on the southern end of Emanuel County and not far from where my grandmother's family is from in Oak Park. But the town has come to a virtual standstill following illegal-immigrant roundups, and an Associated Press story on that situation has gotten national coverage. Google News says that as of this morning, the story was in the online editions of the Boston Globe, Fox News, and both Seattle daily papers.

Interesting fact: My father has always told me that Stillmore's claim to fame was that there was a railroad roundhouse there.

Gag order imposed in case of children who drowned in sewage pond

Judge's ruling limits statements to media in the runup to the trial, the Augusta Chronicle reports.