Mississippi
How this Illinois-based nonprofit is working to keep the Mississippi River mighty
College students spending spring break by a body of water is nothing new. However, through an “alternative spring break” program, Illinois-based nonprofit Living Lands & Waters made such a trip an opportunity for students to learn about and clean up that body of water instead of simply sunbathe beside it.
Throughout March, 140 volunteers from 14 universities joined the crew of Living Lands & Waters at McKellar Lake in Memphis to remove 131,419 pounds of trash.
For Roslin Johns, an environmental science major at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, she returned to take part in the program for a second year after remembering a fun-filled and fulfilling time spent on the water.
“They just make it such a fun experience,” Johns said. “At the end, I leave feeling good not just about myself, but what I did for the environment and I had fun doing it.”
Living Lands & Waters is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1998 by Chad Pregracke. While living and working on the river around his home in East Moline, Illinois, Pregracke was disturbed by the immense amount of debris he saw dumped into the rivers.
Expanding greatly from the once one-man mission, Living Lands & Waters now has a full-time staff with a fleet that includes four barges, two towboats, five workboats, two skid steers, an excavator, six work trucks and a crane.
The history of the organization is visually present in every room of the barge where they work and live. In the classroom space, one wall is filled from top to bottom with toys found within the rivers during cleanups. On the ceiling, hundreds of lighters removed from their watery grave have been turned into a multicolored art piece and signs lost to the waves decorate the walls.
Since its founding, Living Lands & Waters has removed more than 13 million pounds of trash from America’s rivers with the help of over 135,000 volunteers.
The crew of Living Lands & Waters, who spend 6 to 9 months of the year living on one of the barges as they travel across 28 rivers in 25 states to host river cleanups, workshop classes and further conservation efforts, are no strangers to McKellar Lake.
Since 2010, the crew and volunteers have removed more than 1.8 million pounds of trash from the lake.
“There’s always a need,” Callie Schaser, programs manager and communications specialist with Living Lands and Waters, said about McKellar. “It’s a great place to bring a ton of students and get a lot done and then we fill up the barge in three weeks.”
Due to the fast speeds of the Mississippi River, the crew can’t operate on the river itself for cleanup efforts. However, cleaning up McKellar Lake removes trash that inevitably will make its way into the Mississippi and possibly all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
“McKellar Lake acts as this little net for us to catch everything and trap everything,” Schaser said.
In removing trash from the lake, trash that made its way there from the streets of Memphis and Nonconnah Creek, Schaser said the students are reacting to an issue. While this is important, she and Living Lands & Waters hope that they return to their community knowing they can impact their community before trash ever makes it to a river.
“This is reactive, but you guys can be proactive around your campus, around your hometown,” Schaser said. “Anything you see, if it’s near a storm drain and it’s on the ground that’s going in there and that’s going in the water.”
‘Mighty Mississippi is 2,300 miles of opportunity’
In bringing students to the river, Living Lands & Waters doesn’t want to only focus on conservation efforts. Through their Mississippi River Institute, they also hold workshops for students to learn all the occupational possibilities living near the Mississippi can offer.
Separate from the barges they use in their trash-collecting efforts, Living Lands & Waters has built a second classroom barge, constructed from and decorated with recycled material, of course. This classroom barge is used to teach students how they can pursue one of the many careers the river can offer.
The program, which is traveling down the Mississippi River, offers workforce development programs and STEM-related jobs near riverfront cities, such as Memphis.
“We’re hoping to showcase the mighty Mississippi is 2,300 miles of opportunity,” said Rachel Loomis, the Mississippi River Institute manager.
Soft launching in 2023, the institute had its first full year in 2024. In the spring and winter of 2025, the institute has been docked near the Mud Island Marina in Memphis to host workshops. After May 9, the institute will head to St. Paul, Minnesota, for its winter location.
In a workshop on March 26, AP biology and health sciences students from White Station High School heard from employees of Wepfer Marine Inc., a tugboat company that operates out of Memphis and along the Mississippi, and from a commercial fisherman. The students were then able to tour one of the tugboats and ask questions of the captain and crew as they learned about what it’s like to live aboard the ship for weeks at a time.
“Today is about a day of exploration,” Loomis said to the students during the workshop. “If you’re not able to know about these jobs, you’re not able to pursue them.”
For the crew of Living Lands & Waters, there is an inseparable link between their tenets of protecting the river and working with and on it.
“We have to respect the river before we learn how to make money on it,” Loomis said as one of the main lessons she hopes students take away from the workshop.
Chris Day is a photojournalist at The Commercial Appeal. Contact him a cjday@gannett.com.
Mississippi
Couple sentenced for selling faulty fire extinguishers to Mississippi daycares, businesses – SuperTalk Mississippi
The Smith County couple who knowingly sold faulty fire alarms to daycares and other commercial businesses across the state will spend time behind bars.
Daniel and Sherri Finnegan, the owners of Finnegan Fire Safety Equipment, entered guilty pleas on Tuesday in connection with the fraud scheme. Daniel Finnegan will spend seven years in prison, while his spouse will be locked up for one year. Officials report that the plea agreements encompass charges filed in both Rankin and Madison counties, where 12 charges have been filed against each defendant stemming from six different cases.
The Finnegans were arrested in Aug. 2024 for selling and installing used fire suppression systems that did not work and were not tested before being placed into service, putting people at risk in the event of fire. The Mississippi Insurance Department reported that the couple targeted minority-owned businesses and owners who had a language barrier.
Originally, the duo was charged with 41 counts each of false pretense, along with 37 counts each of violations of the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code. Despite the pleas entered in Rankin and Madison Counties, the defendants still face an additional 31 fire prevention code violations and 37 false pretense charges that remain pending in 11 other counties.
“The investigation showed that more than $343,000 was paid directly to the couple by confirmed victims. It is important to note that this figure does not represent the full financial impact, as some financial documentation could not be obtained,” a statement from the Mississippi Insurance Department reads. “Furthermore, many victims incurred substantial additional costs to correct and remediate deficient installations and to bring fire protection systems into compliance.”
Restitution ordered for Daniel Finnegan totals $67,853.95, while Sherri Finnegan has to pay out $20,000.
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A former federal attorney was arrested and charged with arson after a building and dumpster were set on fire Friday, Feb. 27, in the Fondren area of Jackson, authorities said.
Jackson Fire Department Chief of Investigations Charles Felton said firefighters responded around 12 a.m. Friday in reference to a reported building fire and dumpster fire at Yana Club of Mississippi located at 555 Hartsfield Street.
Felton said fire crews arrived and found two separate fires in the Fondren neighborhood that caused damage to the Yana Club and the dumpster.
No injuries were reported.
After the fires were extinguished, a fire investigator was called to the scene. Investigators spoke with Capitol Police, who had a suspect detained.
Felton said the Jackson Fire Department Arson Division arrested George McDowell Yoder III, a former federal attorney, and charged him with first-degree arson of Yana Club and third-degree arson of the dumpster.
In 2021, WDAM TV reported Yoder had been a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi from 2009 to 2011. Yoder also ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 2016.
According to a 2023 article by the Laurel Leader Call, Yoder was arrested in 2021 for residential burglary and faced multiple charges from 2021 to 2023. Yoder was also arrested in 2023 for arson charges, the outlet reported.
Documents from the Supreme Court of Mississippi also indicate that Yoder was admitted to the practice of law in the state in 1999 but later suspended in 2022 from practicing law for three years.
Court records show Yoder was found to be accepting fees from clients, abandoning them and then failing to deposit their retainers into a trust account. Yoder “commingled” his personal money with those of his clients and performed little to no work on a Madison County criminal case he was hired to resolve.
Jackson fire officials also said that a fire did not occur Friday morning at The Pig & Pint, a barbecue business located next to Yana Club.
Yana Club of Mississippi, a nonprofit organization, is described via their Facebook page as a “recovery community” that serves individuals seeking help with addictions.
The organization confirmed at 10:23 a.m. Friday via a social media post that the Yana Club building will be closed due to damages sustained from the fire.
“Due to the safety of our members, we will be closed through the weekend,” the organization stated. “We are working with [the] fire department and insurance to determine the best course of action. The building is currently deemed unsafe for meetings to be held. We will be in touch with updates when we have them.”
Pam Dankins is the breaking news reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Have a tip? Email her at pdankins@gannett.com.
LAUREL, Miss. (WDAM) – A world-renowned dance instructor from New York visited Laurel Thursday to conduct a special class and do some recruiting for a prestigious summer dance program in the Big Apple.
Melanie Person, who is co-director of the Ailey School in New York, taught a master ballet class Thursday morning at Laurel Middle School.
It’s part of a three-day residency in the Magnolia State, organized by the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience in Meridian.
She’ll teach two other classes Friday in Meridian before hosting an audition Saturday for a prestigious summer dance program at the Ailey School.
“I typically tour in about six to eight cities in the U.S., and I recruit dancers to come to our summer intensive, so part of this weekend, in one of the classes, I will be accepting students to come to New York for our five-week summer intensive,” Person said.
“We accept the dancers we like, and we see if they are able to come. The decision to come to New York for the summer is a big undertaking for families, so we just hope that they can do it.”
Registration is required for that audition, which will be held at the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience.
To do that, click HERE.
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