Civil Rights Museum Funding Advances In HouseA proposed national civil-rights museum in downtown Jackson could receive $30 million in state funds, under a bill up for consideration by the state House of Representatives. The House Ways & Means Committee voted today to approve HB 1463, which …
Schools and CigsCharters-school advocates are looking to change the state's current law to allow charter schools to use lottery enrollment. The Mississippi Legislature passed SB 2293 last year, creating a process for transforming some failing public schools into "New Start Schools" and …
Health for AllAlvin Poussaint's career reads like a hopscotch game across the touchstones of post-World War II African American history. Born in 1934, Poussaint earned a medical degree at Cornell University and studied psychiatry at UCLA before joining the Civil Rights Movement.
Of Contracts, BrokenOver the past few weeks, the Mississippi Legislature has bandied about a few anemic attempts at strengthening laws protecting victims of domestic violence. Among them is an addition to the state's divorce laws that would allow judges to grant a …
[Kamikaze] A Jackson Reality CheckIt's time for some hard truth. Some Jackson detractors may have taken my ProJack stance as blind love for our fair city. Some have accused me of selling hype over substance. I've refuted crime stats, championed development and screamed "Buy …
No Small FeatThe students in John Bennetts' second-grade class are being perfect sponges. Bennetts, a teacher at KIPP Delta Elementary Literacy Academy, a charter school in Helena, Ark., is drilling the class on the difference between "explicit information" and "implicit information."
Civil Rights Museum Funding Advances In HouseA proposed national civil-rights museum in downtown Jackson could receive $30 million in state funds, under a bill up for consideration by the state House of Representatives. The House Ways & Means Committee voted today to approve HB 1463, which …
Health Reform Moves AheadThe Mississippi Legislature is debating laws that conform to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, even as legal challenges to the act continue.
Bills to Protect Domestic Abuse VictimsAfter her husband physically and mentally abused her for nearly a decade, Joy Jones* realized her situation was only going to get worse. She gathered up enough courage to seek a divorce and secretly obtained a lawyer, who encouraged her …
NAACP Asks Barbour to Condemn Klan PlateMississippi NAACP President Derrick Johnson is asking Gov. Haley Barbour to condemn the Mississippi Sons of Confederate Veterans' push to create a commemorative license plate for Confederate General and the Ku Klux Klan's first Grand Wizard, Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Stadiums, Hackers and OilA bill the Mississippi Senate is considering could transfer control of Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium to Jackson State University. House Bill 1158, which the House of Representatives passed Feb. 10, would give JSU control of the stadium itself while transferring …
Ward 1 Special Election TodayWard 1 voters will decide today whether L. Patricia Ice or Quentin Whitwell will fill the Ward 1 City Council seat, which has been empty since Jeff Weill left in January to serve as a Hinds Circuit Court judge.
Cost of Flood Study Could JumpA study examining flood control along the Pearl River could cost taxpayers twice as much, due to post- Katrina requirements, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told the Levee Board today.
Edwards to Argue for Job In MarchNext month, Jackson Public Schools Superintendent Lonnie Edwards will have a chance to win his job back. Edwards has appealed the JPS Board of Trustees Dec. 7 decision not to renew his contract beyond the end of this school year. …
On Feb. 15, Vote Ice for Ward 1The Jackson Free Press' readership is diverse in many ways, and we get criticized from the left and right for editorial stances and endorsements. Our editorial board believes in groups of people with varying opinions getting together to debate and …
Mississippi Lawmakers on Smoking, Sex-Ed and Kicked CatsToday is the deadline for Mississippi legislators to take floor action on all bills originating in their respective chambers, and the House and Senate passed several bills yesterday and this morning.
Facing the TruthOn Friday night, I made the road trip to my aunt and uncle's Flowood home to finally see "Mississippi ReMixed," a documentary by Jackson native Myra Ottewell who examines her personal beliefs about relationships between blacks and whites in Mississippi. …
Not Without A FightJackson Public Schools Superintendent Lonnie Edwards won't go quietly. Edwards announced Feb. 5 that he would appeal the JPS Board of Trustees' decision to let his three-year contract expire with the current school year.
Nathan's Law StrugglingOn a cold afternoon two weeks before Christmas in 2009, Laurel resident Lori Key stood outside her home like she did every day and waited for her son, Nathan, to get off his school bus. As the bus pulled up …
The Secession BandwagonIt seems Mississippi Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, is out to prove an election-year point by appealing to the most extreme fringe of the far right.
[Head] Hazardous CivilityIn 2009, I spent 48 minutes on Paul Gallo's SuperTalk radio show. I wanted to persuade Gallo to help me expose the mainstream resurgence of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a segregationist group patterned after the 1960s-era white Citizen's Councils …
Sales-Tax Commission Needed for Jackson?City leaders have only one major request this legislative session, but that doesn't mean they'll get it. Jackson lawmakers are pushing to revise a 2009 sales-tax bill that offered a stream of funding for public safety and improvements to the …
Mississippi a CO2 Dump?Mississippi would become a reservoir for carbon-dioxide storage under Senate Bill 2723 and House Bill 1098--both of which survived their respective Oil, Gas and Other Minerals committees this month.
House Stalls on Domestic Violence GPSMonitoring domestic violence suspects out on bond is apparently a controversial issue in the Mississippi House of Representatives. The House spent most of yesterday tackling an unofficial list of non-controversial legislation. Left off that list was a bill sponsored by …
More Art, Crafts, Cannoli, RetailA children's fountain, outdoor dining, garden rooms, performance stage and expansive art installations are just a few of the design elements The Art Garden at the Mississippi Museum of Art will feature when it opens in August.
Everybody Deserves Smoke-Free AirEverybody deserves smoke-free air. Pediatricians have first-hand experience about what happens when children and babies breathe second-hand smoke.
A.M.E. LoganRemaining fearless and determined even into her late 90s, civil rights activist A.M.E. Logan would frequently attend community meetings and drive herself around Jackson delivering Avon products to her clients.
The students in John Bennetts' second-grade class are being perfect sponges. Bennetts, a teacher at KIPP Delta Elementary Literacy Academy, a charter school in Helena, Ark., is drilling the class on the difference between "explicit information" and "implicit information."