This just in: reports indicate that Judge Keith Starrett will be nominated to replace Pickering on the District Court bench here in Hattiesburg. Excellent, if true.

Judge Starrett is a former district attorney and plaintiff's attorney who has run for the US Senate. He's a southern Democrat; he founded the first drug court in Mississippi, and he runs a very tight ship. This is very good news, if accurate.

EDIT: Yes, I know that Judge Starett is a Republican, but politics in Mississippi and especially in the Tri-County area (which has not elected a Republican to office since Reconstruction) are confused, party-wise. Starrett is a wise and moderate man that can balance the demands of the law with the demands of justice, a task some judges cannot handle at all.