State Needs Real TransparencyMississippi, we have a problem. Governmental bodies and agencies from right here in Jackson (city, JPS and JPD) all the way up through state (secretary of state's office) have a really bad habit of trying to hide public information from …
Jamie Scott HospitalizedLess than three weeks after her release from prison, Jamie Scott has been hospitalized. Activist Nancy Lockhart, who worked for more than five years to free Jamie and her sister, Gladys, said in an e-mail press release that Jamie was …
[Kamikaze] Taking a StandI've always said if change were going to come in Jackson, it wouldn't come easy. I've known for years that some folks would have be dragged kicking and screaming into the new millennium. A "rebirth" isn't going to be pleasant. …
History's ReturnGov. Haley Barbour is a sucker for anniversaries, apparently. In his final State of the State address last week, the governor said that 2011—the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides and the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil …
Latinos and LoansMississippi could be headed for a courtroom showdown if the full state Legislature passes an anti-immigrant bill mirroring an Arizona law that forces law-enforcement to profile people they suspect to be undocumented residents.
Arizona-Style Immigration Bill Advances, In A HurryThe Mississippi Senate passed a bill modeled after Arizona's anti-immigrant law SB 1070 today, despite protests by some Democrats that the measure was rife with errors carried over from the other state's law.
Cynthia NewhallCynthia Newhall was just a teenager when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968. On April 18, her 16th birthday, Newhall decided to dedicate her life to the struggle for equality.
[Balko] The Year in ClemencyIt was a strange year for clemency, the often misunderstood and generally misused power that allows the president and governors to grant pardons (which overturn convictions) and commutations (which reduce sentences). The federal clemency power was meant to be a …
Hezekiah WatkinsOn a sunny day in the spring of 1961, Hezekiah Watkins was just another face in the crowd as he watched the Freedom Riders arrive at the Greyhound bus station on Lamar Street. Itching for a closer look, the 13-year-old …
Teaching The TruthNext year, for the first time, Mississippi will require all social-studies teachers to teach the history of civil rights in the state. The requirement will come more than five years after state lawmakers initially approved the curriculum change.
Politicians: Tone Down the RhetoricThe United States changed Saturday morning, Jan. 8, when an apparently mentally disturbed man took out his anti-government venom by trying to assassinate a U.S. congresswoman, and killing a little girl, a judge and other people's loved ones in the …
Former Inmate: Youth Prison Was HellThe Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility is failing to rehabilitate and is actually endangering the lives of its juvenile inmates, advocates and former inmates told state lawmakers today. Members of the House Juvenile Justice Committee heard a litany of complaints …
Scott Sisters Story Goes ViralAfter languishing in obscurity for 16 years, the story of imprisoned sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott received its 15 minutes on the national stage last week after Gov. Haley Barbour ordered their life sentences indefinitely suspended.
Former Chief Questions ShootingFormer Jackson Police Chief Robert Johnson says two Jackson police officers should not have been in a position to shoot a Jackson resident on New Year's morning.