NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Ole Miss to demolish site where Faulkner wrote landmark book

OXFORD, Miss.

Sometime soon, the University of Mississippi plans to demolish a now-vacant 1908 power plant where William Faulkner wrote one of his most significant novels.

Ole Miss is tearing down the Old Power Plant as part of a project to build a $135 million science building.

Faulkner wrote “As I Lay Dying” while working as a night supervisor there in late 1929. The author later said he wrote the book atop an overturned wheelbarrow during slack times of his 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift.

Officials with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History have cleared plans to demolish the building, saying it has been so heavily altered that it lacks historic integrity. The university plans to build a space commemorating Faulkner as part of the science building.

Poland will not extradite Roman Polanski to the US

WARSAW, Poland

Poland will not extradite filmmaker Roman Polanski to the U.S. in an almost 40-year-old case after prosecutors declined to challenge a court ruling against it.

Prosecutors in Krakow, who sought the extradition on behalf of the U.S., said Friday they found the court’s refusal of extradtion to be “right” and they found no grounds to appeal it.

The decision closes the case in Poland and means Polanski is free to reside and work in Poland.

The director pleaded guilty in 1977 to one count of statutory rape for having sex with a 13-year-old girl during a photo shoot in Los Angeles.

Associated Press