DOSSIER: Shame on WLBT for Dishonoring Past with Empty Crime RhetoricWLBT, the NBC affiliate of the Atlanta-based Gray Television, climbed fully on board with U.S. Attorney Hurst's false rhetoric that Jackson leaders and other locals are somehow "denying" gun violence in the capital city.
Lawmaker Who Called for Lynching of Confederate Statue Foes ElevatedIn 2017, Mississippi House Rep. Karl Oliver wrote that Louisiana leaders ought to be "LYNCHED" for removing Confederate monuments. On Jan. 8, House Speaker Philip Gunn made him vice chair of the powerful appropriations committee.
Police Task Forces ‘Waste of Time’ for Violence Prevention?Law-enforcement efforts to combat violent crime in Jackson in recent years have increasingly focused on the creation of multi-agency task forces, which identify high-crime regions or criminal activity, gather intelligence, and serve subpoenas, warrants and indictments related to those crimes.
MDOC Hits ‘Breaking Point’Inmate deaths are not a new phenomenon in Mississippi. Some family members and activist organizations, like the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, have pointed to a lack of funding to explain rising prison violence.
2020 Legislative Preview: GOP In Charge, But Conflict Ahead?The GOP's newfound dominance in Mississippi does not mean a pacified Legislature, outgoing House Minority Leader Rep. David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis, says. Baria believes that real political daylight exists between the two men now inheriting the most powerful positions …
Local United Methodist Churches Face Schism Over LGBTQ InclusionThe future of Mississippi's United Methodist churches and institutions is in question after a group of influential United Methodist Church leaders announced a preliminary agreement to split the church in two on Jan. 3, due to irreconcilable disagreements over LGBTQ …
Hyde-Smith, Wicker 'Gunning to End Roe': Ask High Court to OverturnMississippi's two U.S. senators, Republicans Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider overturning its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide.
New DA Jody Owens Promises Reform, Alternatives to IncarcerationEarlier this week, civil rights attorney and avowed criminal-justice reformer Jody Owens officially took over as the new Hinds County district attorney, succeeding the controversy-plagued Robert Shuler Smith, who served eight years.
Mississippi Prison Deaths Follow Warnings of Meager Funding, ShortagesThree more Mississippi prisoners have died at the hands of other inmates in the six days since the Mississippi Department of Corrections initiated a statewide prison lockdown last Sunday, bringing the week's death toll to four.
Statewide Gas Taxes a Bridge Too Far for Lt. Gov.-elect HosemannLt. Gov.-elect Delbert Hosemann will not consider raising gas taxes statewide in 2020, he told the press on Dec. 17. But he is opening the door for county supervisors to pass their own local tax raises.
JPD Arrests 82 People Under 'Operation Targeting Gun Violence'Days after U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst chided Jackson public officials for being too soft on crime, Jackson Police Department Chief James Davis held a press conference to highlight 82 arrests in the city.