BY Hugh D. Palmer
Delta Business Journal
Delta leaders have reacted with surprise and disappointment in President Clinton's proposed budget request in areas that directly impact the economic viability of the region.
  "When President Clinton came to Clarksdale last summer and in subsequent visits to the Delta region, he stressed the need for special help for a region that has special problems," said Delta Council Vice President Clifton Porter of Fitler.

BY NANCY COTTEN HIRST
Contributing Editor, Delta Business Journal
Okay all you McCain lovers and Bush haters out there, Michigan gave the Arizona maverick a real boost in the race to nomination.  Just don't get too excited too early.  You haven't lived in Michigan (well, we do have a couple of transplants in the area, and they'll know what I'm talking about).  I have - for three long, cold, overcast winters interspersed with short, cool summers.

BY David Bowen
The Delta has problems which outsiders, South and North, like to write about, for which they have very few solutions.
Some say we need better schools, which is true of many places in America. Getting students to stay in school, getting them to study, and having ambition is indeed a Delta problem, as for many others.

BY MARY ELLEN POWELL
Contributing Writer, Delta Business Journal
It was just last year that Simmons Catfish expanded to add 8,000 square feet to its processing plant. JacPac Meat Processing opened for business just last year as well. Come to think of it, it wasn't too long ago that it was announced that a second federal prison would be built in Yazoo City.

BY ELIZABETH REID
Contributing Writer, DBJ
J.C. Burns, Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development, talked about his learning tour of the state, specific economic challenges, workforce training issues and alternative programs to spur economic development in the Mississippi Delta to the Delta Business Journal.

BY MARY ELLEN POWELL
Contributing Writer, Delta Business Journal
When Dr. Venus Jones began to look toward retirement from the Air Force she did not look for a position in a large city. In fact, she looked for a place where there was a need for additional qualified physicians and a place that others might not have chosen. And, though she had never even traveled in Mississippi, except for a brief visit to Hattiesburg, she found herself settling in Clarksdale in July of 1998, in the Delta, where the recruiting of physicians can be difficult, but the need is pronounced.

BY MOLLY MATTHEWS
Contributing Writer, Delta Business Journal
Last month, legislators passed a new law that increases allowable income for Medicaid recipients - a boost to the Delta's healthcare economy because of its high percentage of Medicaid patients. In the second month of the new gubernatorial regime, only one of 174 legislators - Rep. Keith Montgomery (R-Clinton) - voted against the bill that relaxes Medicaid restrictions.