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Appropriations and Pole-Dancing
The House and Senate agreed on a major appropriation bill last week, when negotiators came to terms on appropriations bill SB 2495, which restores $82 million to the Fiscal Year 2010 budget, including $37 million slated for K-12 public education. House and Senate negotiators reached an accord after Gov. Haley Barbour sliced more than $450 million from the 2010 budget.
Assistant Chief: Avoid Driving in Weather
The Jackson Police Department reported low crime figures in some precincts throughout the week of Feb. 1 to Feb. 7, but police are gearing up to deal with any potential hazards resulting from expected snowfall this week.
The Emerging Mississippi: Are New Voters Changing State Politics?
Photos by Kenya Hudson
When presidential hopeful Barack Obama entered the Rose Embley McCoy building at Jackson State University on March 10, he flowed easily into the hungry arms of the crowd. At least 100 young people—mostly females—pressed against the metal barricades, screaming and crying to shake his hand, crushing hapless reporters who had the misfortune of already standing at the barricade.
Barbour and HUD Under Fire
The Mississippi Conference of the NAACP and the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center are suing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for allowing Gov. Haley Barbour to divert nearly $600 million in federal funding away from affordable housing recovery after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and into a pet port project that Congress had refused to fund earlier.
Coal Plant on Public Hot Seat This Week
The Mississippi Public Service Commission began the second phase of hearings this week to determine the need for a proposed $2.4 billion coal plant in Kemper County.
Stolen Car Sat in Impound Lot, Owner Says
A Jackson restaurant manager says the Jackson Police Department's poor interdepartmental communication cost her more than $1,000.
Henry Lee "Trey" Mangum
AIDS activist Henry "Trey" Mangum died Friday in New Orleans, leaving behind a particularly heartfelt legacy of hope.
Police Union: No Agreement
The city of Jackson has not reached an agreement with the Jackson Police Officers Association regarding limiting the number of officers allowed to complete the sergeant's exam processcontrary to what Interim Police Chief Tyrone Lewis said at a June 11 Civil Service Commission meeting. Union president Juan Cloy denied Lewis' statement before the Commission last week, saying that the chief was mistaken.
Legislative Special Session Underway
The Mississippi House and Senate are desperately hammering out an agreement on a state appropriation bill one day after Gov. Haley Barbour finally called a special session. Barbour had initially fought the idea of a special session, after disagreeing with a House and Senate conference settlement filling a Medicaid budget hole with a $60 million tax on hospitals that accept Medicaid patients.
The 2009 JFP Interview with Jabari Toins
Native son Jabari Toins says previous mayors have turned Jackson upside down, pushing him to run for the job.
Legislative Update–Week 2: Dissin' Youth
The House passed a statewide $7.25 minimum-wage bill, though they hobbled the bill, according to the Young Democrats of Mississippi, by voting in an amendment exempting part-time high school or college employees from the bill.
Legislative Update—Week 4: IDs and Immigrants
The Senate followed up on the whack-a-Pedro rhetoric of conservative talk radio this month by passing a bill refusing state contract work to businesses that do not screen employees for their immigration status. Judiciary A Chairman Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, admitted Senate Bill 2037 would only affect a small percentage of state businesses that have contracts with the government, but added the bill was only the beginning of more far-reaching immigration reform planned by the Senate.
Residents To Legislature: Please Help
The Battlefield Community Association has a new way to fight crime in West Jackson: Members are taking the fight to the Legislature.
Big City, Bright Future: Development Surges Ahead in Downtown Jackson
Graphic illustration courtesy of Downtown Jackson Partners
These may be strange days for a Capitol City, but Jackson's rebirth continues to pick up speed, despite the antics of its indicted mayor.
Law on Call
Last summer, Jackson attorneys Tim Porter and Rocky Wilkins came up with the idea for "Law Call," a live call-in show that premiered on WLBT Feb. 7.
The Incredible, Shrinking SS Check
Mississippi, like many so-called "red" states, gets big returns for its tax dollar. The report "Federal Tax Burdens and Expenditures by State," explains that the state gets back $1.84 out of every $1 it pays to the federal government, ranking it as No. 4 on the report's big "winners" list. These benefits include Social Security money, which according to the National Women's Law Center, 22 percent of Mississippians enjoy. This compares to California's 16 percent and Alaska's 12 percent. The idea of tampering with Social Security, consequently, has a heady impact among Mississippi voters.
Protesters Demand Epps Stop Inmate Abuse
Members of the Southeastern Christian Association, Operation Help Civil Rights Group, and Mothers of Inmates protested outside Mississippi Department of Corrections headquarters on President Street in Jackson today, lobbying for fair treatment of sons and husbands who are inmates in MDOC correctional facilities.
Reservoir District Bill Back Door to Flood Control?
Control of the Ross Barnett Reservoir is at stake in a bill proposed this week by Sen. Lee Yancey, R-Brandon, that is raising questions over what it really aims to do -- and whether it could be a back-door way to help the Two Lakes river-development plan still see the light of day.
Melton Sues Over Own Leak
Jackson Mayor Frank Melton is suing The Clarion-Ledger for breach of contract, a story the Jackson Free Press broke on its Web site on April 18. Melton was head of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics for less than four months when he leaked a memo composed by then-MBN agent Roy Sandifer (now JPD assistant police chief) to The Clarion-Ledger's Washington correspondent Ana Radelat in 2003. Now, Melton is suing the paper because it ran his leaked memo without corroborating the accusations in it. The memo alleged that MBN agents were illegally transferring MBN-seized weapons and an airplane.
Better Late Than Never
Within weeks of passing a resolution to apologize for lynching, the U.S. Senate is moving to help solve old civil rights cases. U.S. Sens. Jim Talent, R-Mo., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., recently announced strong support for their Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act (S. 1369) with 22 cosponsors, including Dodd and Talent, already backing the legislation.