EXPERTS WILL EXAMINE GULF MERCURY EXAMINATION

OCEAN SPRINGS – A trio of experts will examine the issue of mercury contamination of fish in the Gulf of Mexico during a seminar on heavy metal pollution Jan. 22 at The University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory.

Presentations are scheduled from 10 a.m.-noon at GCRL's Caylor Auditorium. Lunch and informal discussions with speakers will be held from noon-1 p.m. Registration, including a brown-bag lunch, is $5. To register, call Dale Fremin at (228) 872-4256.

Presenters will include Dr. Wayne Isphording, a University of South Alabama scientist; LaDon Swann, director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium; and Ben Raines, a Mobile Register reporter who broke the story about methylmercury levels in the northern gulf.

The program will mark the third in a Southern Miss seminar series on the health of gulf estuaries and fisheries. GCRL is a part of the university's College of Marine Sciences.

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HOME-BUYER WORKSHOP SET IN JACKSON JAN. 25

JACKSON – Mississippi Home of Your Own (HOYO) – an award-winning program of The University of Southern Mississippi-based Institute for Disability Studies (IDS) – will sponsor a one-day home-buyer education workshop Jan. 25 for residents with disabilities in Hinds and surrounding counties.

The workshop will be held from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Mississippi Arts Center, Community Room 1, at 201 East Pascagoula Street in downtown Jackson. IDS is Mississippi's Center for excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service, headquartered for 25 years at Southern Miss.

HOYO focuses on creating a support system that will identify potential home-buyers, analyze their housing needs and financial capacity, and prepare them for home ownership. Applicants of the HOYO program must attend home-buyer education to be considered for financial assistance in purchasing a home.

All potential home-buyers are urged to call Amy Cooper at IDS at (601) 432-6876 or 1-866-883-4474 (toll-free) to preregister for free home-buyer education. For more information about IDS, visit the institute's Web site at www.ids.usm.edu or call the toll-free number.

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