Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board Summary of Meeting Held May 8, 2018

The Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board (“Board”) convened its regular monthly meeting at 9:00 a.m. on May 8, 2018, at the offices of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, in Jackson.  Dennis Riecke chaired the meeting.   The Board approved minutes from the April meeting and the non-controversial actions/ certifications completed by the staff since […]

Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality Summary of Meeting Held May 24, 2018

The Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality convened at 9:00 a.m., on May 24, 2018, at the offices of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality in Jackson.  The Commission approved minutes from the previous meeting held on February 22, 2018.  Chairman Jack Winstead welcomed new Commissioner, Patrick L. Johnson, Jr. and announced the upcoming retirement of […]

Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board Summary of Meeting Held April 10, 2018

The Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board (“Board”) convened its regular monthly meeting at 9:00 a.m. on April 10, 2018, at the offices of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, in Jackson.  Dennis Riecke chaired the meeting. The Board approved minutes from the March meeting and the non-controversial actions/ certifications completed by the staff since the […]

Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board Summary of Meeting Held March 13, 2018

The Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board (“Board”) convened its regular monthly meeting at 9:00 a.m. on March 13, 2018, at the offices of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, in Jackson.  Dennis Riecke chaired the meeting. The Board approved minutes from the February meeting and the non-controversial actions/ certifications completed by the staff since the […]

Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality Summary of Meeting Held February 22, 2018

The Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality convened at 9:00 a.m., on February 22, 2018, at the offices of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality in Jackson.  The Commission approved minutes from the previous meeting held on November 17, 2017.  Following a prepared agenda, items considered were as follows:   Commission Approval of Brownfield Agreement Modification […]

U.S. Court of Appeals Reverses Course Concerning Title VII Protection of LGBTQ+ Rights

On Monday, February 26, 2018, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a landmark ruling in holding that workplace discrimination premised on an employee’s sexual orientation is covered by Title VII’s express prohibition against gender-based discrimination. In so doing, the Second Circuit reversed its own precedent established less than one year ago, and in […]

Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board Summary of Meeting Held February 13, 2018

The Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board (“Board”) convened its regular monthly meeting at 9:00 a.m. on February 13, 2018, at the offices of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, in Jackson.  Dennis Riecke chaired the meeting. The Board approved minutes from the January meeting and the non-controversial actions/ certifications completed by the staff since the […]

2018 Bank Planning Conference for Executive Leadership

Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board Summary of Meeting Held January 9, 2018

The Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board (“Board”) convened its regular monthly meeting at 9:00 a.m. on January 9, 2018, at the offices of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, in Jackson.  Dennis Riecke chaired the meeting. The Board approved minutes from the December meeting and the non-controversial actions/ certifications completed by the staff since the […]

OSHA Releases Final/Updated Workplace Injury Reporting Rule

On Wednesday, May 11, 2016, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) finalized a newly updated Rule governing employer responsibilities in recordkeeping and reporting regarding workplace injuries and illnesses.  Effective in January 2017, the new Rule requires employers to electronically submit information about covered workplace injuries and illnesses to OSHA, for posting on the agency’s […]

Five Things I Learned at Disney World

Last week, during my kids’ spring break, we finally took our epic family trip to Disney World (yes, I am the tightwad father that refused to take them until they were old enough to remember it because I didn’t want to “waste” the trip). We did it right, too. Instead of fooling with airports and […]

Will Peyton Manning Win Defamation Case?

The Al Jazeera report that Peyton Manning’s wife received shipments of Human Growth Hormone has been much discussed the past several days. Peyton has said that any implication that he used the drug is a “complete fabrication” and that he is so angry that he’ll probably sue Al Jazeera. My good friend Rick Cleveland has […]

The Things We Missed While Daydreaming in College Statistics

While I love numbers and “statistics” in the baseball sense of the word, I must admit that I never sat through a class in college that I considered more worthless than Statistics. I never considered a regression analysis too hard to regurgitate on a test, but the necessity of it escaped me. Possibly it was […]

Community Banking: The Ultimate Moneyball

When I think about my childhood, the first and most vivid memory I have is of the summer before I turned 12. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, that summer was as close as I would ever come to realizing my dream of becoming a major league baseball player. That is because it […]

Low Rent and Ramen Noodles?

Like all of us, the older I get, the more I understand the genetics lessons I learned in high school biology. As a kid, I would sit at the dinner table every night and listen to my father tell his same favorite stories over and over again, laughing harder each time he told them. I […]

“This Business Ain’t Hard, Son, You Just Can’t Make Bad Loans”

In April, 2008, I personally needed a change of scenery. I was extremely lucky to be part of arguably the largest banking law practice in the state at that time, and I was equally fortunate to have arguably the state’s best known banking attorney as my mentor. However, the pressures and stresses of balancing the […]

Small Community Banks in Rural Areas Still Make Money?

“Wait a minute,” you say, “this can’t be right. Everything I have heard in banking for the past 20 years has told me my bank must get larger. We must abandon these old, rural markets for the greener pastures of America’s cities and suburbs, where loans and deposits flow like milk and honey.” Well, sit […]

Community Banks to America: “The Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated.”

We all know the story and ultimate conclusion, right? Commercial banking is becoming more complex, regulations are multiplying exponentially each passing day, commercial activity and related loans are migrating more and more to metropolitan areas, so therefore small town, community banks are quickly becoming a thing of the past. They simply can’t keep up. Not […]