If you've ever watched a loved one die of emphysema or lung cancer, you know it is heart wrenching and painful. In many, if not most cases, smoking is the culprit. There has been a move over the years for individual businesses, restaurants, cities and states to become smoke free.  When this has happened locally, like in Gulfport, we have done editorials applauding this action.

Biloxi now taking up this issue is a step toward a healthier South Mississippi.

Hopefully you enjoyed an extra hour of sleep Sunday. Firefighters say people can sleep at lot safer at night if they take the time to make sure the batteries in their smoke detectors are working. Daylight savings time is a perfect reminder to replace the batteries.

Firefighters say as important as having functioning smoke detectors is where the devices are located in the house.

"The smoke is what kills you mainly. Nine times out of ten, it's the smoke that gets them. If you're asleep no matter what time of the day or night it is. It doesn't matter.

Mississippi Department of Marine Resources - About 3,000 volunteers scoured Mississippi’s beaches and waterways picking up marine debris at 77 designated cleanup sites during the 23rd annual Mississippi Coastal Cleanup, part of the International Coastal Cleanup—the world’s largest volunteer effort to clean up the marine environment.

During the 2011 Mississippi Coastal Cleanup, 2,984 volunteers picked up 2,130 bags of trash, including 55 bags of recyclables, along 163 miles of Coastal waterways in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties.