Weekly Roundup: Jackson County Economic Development Foundation News Clips December 29th

Mississippi is investing millions of dollars in high school career coaches. Here’s how it works.

Mississippi Today 
Sara DiNatale | December 20, 2022 

Jackson County has one of the most thorough career coaching programs in the state that goes by the name “P3,” short for “purpose, passion, and paycheck.” The first iteration of a similar program launched about six years ago in northeast Mississippi, funded by grant money from Toyota.  The programs use career coaches hired from outside the school system — but stationed within a high school — to help students develop a post-grad plan. P3, for example, focuses on its students having one of “three Es”: enrollment (into higher education), employment, or enlistment. 

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Mississippi isn’t known for remote workers, but local entrepreneurs say demand is growing

Mississippi Today 
Sara DiNatale | December 22, 2022 

“We have got five generations of people right now currently in our workforce,” said Mary Martha Henson, deputy director of the Jackson County Economic Development Foundation. “This remote working concept was already going on before COVID, but then in a COVID environment and a post-COVID environment, more people are in a situation where they can live where they want to and still be a productive employee.” 

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Manufacturing: Great American Brands Of 2022

Forbes 
Willy Shih | December 18, 2022 

This is another product with bland naming, but this 155 mm howitzer is a workhorse artillery piece. It started out as a U.K. design by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, but then the company was bought by BAE Systems. It is assembled in Pascagoula, Mississippi by United Defense LP. It is lightweight, thanks to its titanium barrel and titanium castings, which made it 7,000 pounds lighter compared to the M198 which it replaced. That means it is easier to tow around after firing. People who know me know I love titanium for its strength-to-weight ratio and its resistance to corrosion. The Ukrainians have once again done a lot of great field demonstrations and turned it into a great brand. 

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Marine Education Center in Ocean Springs wins CBS architecture competition

Gulf Live 
December 20, 2022 

OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi — School officials already knew that they had a design masterpiece in hand when the University of Southern Mississippi’s Marine Education Center (MEC) opened its doors in April 2018, with accolades for the facility pouring in ever since. This month, the MEC captured first place in the inaugural season of “America ByDesign: Architecture,” a magazine-style television series produced by CBS that shines a spotlight on American architectural innovation, ingenuity, and design excellence to a broad audience. 

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Future USS Jack H. Lucas Embarks on First Sea Trials

Navy.mil 
December 19, 2022 

Builder’s trials consist of a series of in-port and at-sea demonstrations that allow the shipbuilder to assess the ship’s systems. For DDG 125, these trials also mark the first opportunity to test the new Flight III systems while underway. The trials are conducted by the shipbuilder, Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division in Pascagoula, Mississippi.   

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Ingalls Starts Fabrication of 83rd Arleigh Burke Destroyer

The Defense Post 
Rojoef Manuel | December 21, 2022 

Ingalls Shipbuilding has begun fabrication of the US Navy’s future Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) destroyer, the USS Sam Nunn (DDG 133). The ceremony launches the overall construction of the ship, with the first 100-ton steel cut prepared at the company’s facility in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Once completed, Sam Nunn will be the 83rd destroyer of its class to be integrated into the service.

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HII Begins Fabrication of Amphibious Assault Ship Fallujah (LHA 9)

Marine Link
December 20, 2022 

HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division in Pascagoula, Miss. started fabrication of the U.S. Navy’s newest amphibious assault ship Fallujah (LHA 9) on Monday. The start of fabrication signifies that the first 100 tons of steel have been cut for the ship and that the shipyard is ready to move forward with the construction of the ship. “Our shipbuilders are proud of the work they do for the security of our nation and for our Navy and Marine Corps customers,” said Eugene Miller, Ingalls Shipbuilding LHA program manager. “The start of fabrication on Fallujah is a significant milestone in the construction of this large-deck amphibious ship and demonstrates our ability to maintain a sustained LHA production line at Ingalls.”

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Report to Congress on Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter

USNI News 
December 23, 2022 

On April 23, 2019, the Coast Guard-Navy Integrated Program Office for the PSC program awarded a $745.9 million fixed-price, incentive-firm contract for the detail design and construction (DD&C) of the first PSC to Bollinger Inc. of Pascagoula, MS, a shipyard that was owned by Singapore Technologies (ST) Engineering. Bollinger was the leader of one of three industry teams that competed for the DD&C contract. On December 29, 2021, the Coast Guard exercised a $552.7 million fixed price incentive option to its contract with Bollinger for the second PSC. In November 2022, ST Engineering sold Bollinger to Louisiana-based Bollinger Shipyards. The former Bollinger is now called Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding. 

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US Navy to Name Oceanographic Survey Ship USNS Robert Ballard

Marine Link 
December 21, 2022 

The $149 million oceanographic survey ship was ordered from Pascagoula, Miss. shipyard Bollinger—now Bollinger MS Shipbuilding—in June 2021, and its keel was ceremonially laid in October 2022. Equipped with a moon pool for unmanned vehicle deployment and retrieval, T-AGS 67 will be a multi-mission ship that will perform acoustic, biological, physical and geophysical surveys, providing much of the U.S. military’s information on the ocean environment. The vessel will be over 350 feet long with an overall beam of 58 feet.   

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Enviva Announces Long-term, 800,000 Metric Ton Per Year Contract

Business Wire 
December 21, 2022 

Enviva is the world’s largest producer of industrial wood pellets, a renewable and sustainable energy source produced by aggregating a natural resource, wood fiber, and processing it into a transportable form, wood pellets. Enviva owns and operates ten plants with a combined production capacity of approximately 6.2 million metric tons per year in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi, and is constructing its 11th plant in Epes, Alabama. Enviva sells most of its wood pellets through long-term, take-or-pay off-take contracts with creditworthy customers in the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Japan, helping to accelerate the energy transition and to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors like steel, cement, lime, chemicals, and aviation fuels. Enviva exports its wood pellets to global markets through its deep-water marine terminals at the Port of Chesapeake, Virginia, the Port of Wilmington, North Carolina, and the Port of Pascagoula, Mississippi, and from third-party deep-water marine terminals in Savannah, Georgia, Mobile, Alabama, and Panama City, Florida. 

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Mississippi schools look to solar power to cut costs

Mississippi Today 
Alex Rozier | December 21, 2022 

Brooks McKay, director of operations at the Ocean Springs School District, said he and others were skeptical of how solar panels would be able to withstand hurricanes. “There’s a little bit of hesitation on the Coast to put something on the roof worth $250,000 that you don’t know is gonna blow off or not,” he said.  But McKay said the panels have held up fine since the district put them on top of its central office building two years ago, and now the district is already looking to take advantage of the PSC’s rule change to add more solar panels in the near future. 

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Ingalls Shipbuilding, Back Bay Mission team up to hand out socks to those in need

WLOX 
Lauren Martinez | December 20, 2022 

It’s the season of giving along with the season of cold weather. A group of volunteers will be giving out 3,000 pairs of socks Wednesday to help those in need keep their feet warm. With Christmas around the corner, Santa’s helpers are working overtime to spread the spirit of giving, all with some socks. Ingalls Shipbuilding has donated 3,000 pairs of socks to Back Bay Mission. “Everyone needs socks. That’s such an important basic thing that everyone feels good about,” said Lisa Bradley, community relations manager at Ingalls. “The folks at Back Bay Mission are doing the most important work. They’re taking people who are in need and they’re really so good at matching a need with a service.” 

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11 kids find forever home at Jackson County mass adoption event

WDAM 
Leslie Rojas | December 20, 2022 

Ten families in Jackson County received the biggest gift this holiday season. Their adoption process was finalized at the Jackson County Chancery Court. County officials are calling this mass adoption event a Christmas miracle. Jaqueline and Jerry Waits officially adopted their grandchildren. they are one of many families celebrating. “It’s been a long process, but we’re happy to be a part of the mass adoption process today,” they said. “It’s been a special day, like I said, it’s been a long time coming. We’re happy to get it done and this is really nice what they did. 

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