Be Part of the Crime SolutionThe town-hall meeting that the local police union and the Jackson Free Press sponsored last week downtown was eye-opening and sobering. Audience members seemed genuinely flummoxed when they saw the PowerPoint slides of how few police officers are available in …
[Sue Doh Nem] Refusing to Walk in the ShadowBrotha Hustle: "Many of you know me as the cutting-edge, forward-thinking and constantly evolving Juicy Juice-selling entrepreneur. Many of you may also know I collaborate and coordinate other business opportunities with my computer-technology-inclined Aunt Tee Tee.
[Braden] Do You Care?Young people in Jackson are grieving this week- but you didn't see the reason for their grief on the breaking news when we lost another student to violence. In fact, all news sources in Jackson reported different information, and they …
The Other SideWhen I was at Neshoba Central back in the 1970s, I would get called to the office quite a bit. The students around me would look at each other, cutting their eyes from side to side. "What has she done …
Kill Two Lakes, Enhance The RiverA vote this week by the Rankin-Hinds Pearl Flood and Drainage Control District ("Levee Board") appeared to overturn its decision of last July to support a "Lower Lake" plan based, in part, on the Levee Board-sponsored charrette featuring noted architect …
[Sue Doh Nem] Gripe, Moan and ComplainGrandma Pookie: "Welcome to the Gripe, Moan and Complain Weekly Business Report with Pookie Peterz. I'm Grandma Pookie sitting in for my very busy grandson. He's preparing taxes for financially challenged citizens, making them eligible for those long-awaited stimulus checks. …
[Kamikaze] Let the Chickens RoostIt appears that the chickens did indeed come home to roost. No, not in the Rev. Jeremiah Wright sense. Not even the Malcolm X sense. These "chickens" are a direct product of America's passive attitudes toward race relations. Its longstanding …
The Rocky Race to the White HouseWarning: If you're considering running for president, there are several pitfalls to expect, as we've learned over recent weeks.
snark >:-(Given the chance to be the mainstream media authority during a primary with a shocking turnout, The Clarion-Ledger flubbed it, instead displaying how deep its culture of incompetence runs. On primary night, as networks called the election for Obama before …
Pandering for Cheap VotesSenate Bill 2988, a bill making felons out of employed undocumented immigrants and their employers, is now law. Mississippi Building and Construction Trade President David Newell says the law will help prevent the displacement of working U.S. citizens, while associations …
[Sue Doh Nem] Price-Gouged Victims UnitMr. Announcement: "In a recessive economy, opportunists overwhelm financially challenged individuals on fixed incomes with inflated prices. As the price of gas and other necessities increases, poor folk commit desperate acts of retribution. Greed, desperation and retaliation are elements in …
[Mott] Pulling Hard for Our FutureWangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Prize-winner from Kenya, planted seven trees in 1977 in honor of seven women environmentalists. Jailed and reviled for her own environmental activism, Maathai's seven trees became 40 million over the course of two decades, planted by …
Seize the DayWhat a bizarre, crazy week. As we've been putting together this special Fly issue, dedicated to the madness that is the Mal's St. Paddy's Parade, not to mention lots of loud women running around with padded boobs and butts, we've …
Barbour: Reset Museum DecisionThis week, the commission appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour to choose a location for Mississippi's Civil Rights Museum voted 22-9 in support of its location committee's recommendation that the museum be located on property leased to the museum by Tougaloo …
[Sue Doh Nem] A Black Dog Like MeMr. Announcement: "On this edition of 'Animals 'n' the 'Hood,' Poochie, the shiny, black, talking and literate dog, addresses a very sobering phenomenon called 'Black Dog Syndrome.'"
[Kamikaze] Rising Above the MuckBy the time you read this column, the cameras will be gone. The reporters will have packed up all their pens, pads and voice recorders, and moved on to Pennsylvania. All the ballots will be counted.
[Williamson] 100 Years of WasteYou flip a switch, and the light goes on. It's like magic. It is easy to forget how much impact electricity has, how it allows us to work at night, stay warm, send e-mail around the world and compute our …
Dating the CandymanAfter exploring Beijing's Chaoyang district for much of the afternoon, my boyfriend JP and I escaped the heat of the July sun, ducking into a Starbucks. The three stories of the coffee shop were packed with foreign and Chinese businessmen, …
OurCity: Jackson Belongs to EveryoneLast issue, the Jackson Free Press told you about SafeCity's attempt to make parts of the city into what one JFP reader called on our Web site, "Baghdad by the Pearl." The "watchdog" group wanted to create some sort of …
[Sue Doh Nem] Foreclosure FollyMr. Announcement: "Welcome to the premiere television episode of 'The Finance Pimp Gets His Homes Back.' Our story takes place in a barren suburb of foreclosed homes. Predatory lending, sliding interest rates, the 'War on Terror' and a recessive economy …
We're All NewcomersThank you for an excellent article on the challenges, myths and realities of illegal immigration ("Los Cuentos Chinos: Immigration Myths and Realities," Feb. 21, 2008).
[Dickerson] Shame on You, HillaryThe weekend after the Texas debate, I saw Hillary Clinton on television losing her cool over Barack Obama's criticism of her health-care plan. I don't think that I will ever recover from the image of her looking a bit like …
'Yes, I Said Shoe Closet'I can't tell you how many intense business meetings I've been in with a group of dynamic women, negotiating or planning this or that, and suddenly one of us pauses mid-sentence and proclaims, "Where did you get those shoes!?!"
Ask Us Before You LeapIt's been a crazy couple of weeks. Everywhere Jacksonians look, we discover that somebody is trying to slip something by usto benefit themselves in some way that ranges from completely absurd to annoyingly selfish.
[Sue Doh Nem] Caucus, Cabaret and DiscoBoneqweesha Jones: "Welcome to this special edition of 'Qweesha '08!' I'm honored to bring you this historic event and special report—live via rigged satellite—from inside the second-floor office of Big Roscoe, owner of Clubb Chicken Wing. Our balcony camera has …
[Kamikaze] Change Is Gonna Come"Change" has become the buzzword for 2008. I never thought such a tiny word could be so powerful. It holds promise for some, and negativity for others. Ultimately, I've found that those who shun a message of change are usually …
[Gregory] Hello, City LightsFor the past two months I've sat on my new front porch overlooking part of downtown Jackson, and tried to quell the automatic self-doubt that arose in my gut every time I reminded myself that I left the veritable "safety" …
Pecos Bill and the Haunted StateI participated in my first political debate last night. I use the word "debate" loosely because it wasn't really a debate; it was, in fact, a polite exchange of sound bites, many of them false and a good number of …
Civil Rights Museum Should Be DowntownLast week, the location sub-committee of the National Civil Rights Museum Commission in Mississippi recommended Tougaloo College as the location of a proposed civil rights museum in Mississippi. While we recognize Tougaloo's extraordinary role in the fight for civil rights …