Good news in this area must be tied to rising temperatures.

As temps rose in the Miss-Lou, so did the quantity of great headlines around us. Let’s review a few great things from last week:

– McLaurin Elementary School fourth-grader Vivian Rice has had a productive school year. She checked out more than 200 library books, earning 400 points in the school’s Accelerated Reader program.

– Ferriday gained recognition Saturday as an important historical site on the Mississippi Blues Trail. Ferriday’s Haney’s Big House provided a venue to budding bluesmen years ago, and the town came together to celebrate this week. The Soul Survivor’s festival gave music lovers from around the area a reason to gather.

– Saying goodbye to Ernestine Marshall isn’t good news for the Vidalia Upper Elementary School family, but her decades of work for the school and our community is worth a round of applause. This 40-year teacher has touched lives, no doubt, and for that, we all say thank you.

– The downtown Art & Soul festival was a great success Saturday. The event took a bit of a break last year, but we are happy to see this art-lovers’ Saturday back on the community calendar.

– Nearly 300 important folks filled the Natchez Convention Center this week as a part of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Spring Meeting. We are happy this group visited our town, restaurants and shops. And we thank them for the ways they gave back to our community, including partnering local middle school students with students from Tupelo for a bridge-building exercise.

Graduations and the end of the school year also marked the week, reminding us that the relaxing, fun days of summer are upon us.