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Still Divided Over Race?
See what you think.
The Creative Loafing's John Sugg (from Atlanta) is back with a rather sweeping package of stories on race relations in South, with much focus on Mississippi. (Sidebar on continued efforts for justice here, but curiously doesn't mention the Dee-Moore case.)
Hinds DA Facing Different Kind of Trial for Alleged Abuse, Stalking in Rankin County
In the last year, Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith has avoided a conviction in two trials for hindering prosecution in Hinds County that would have forced him from office as the area's top prosecutor, and probably gotten him disbarred.
Year 2: ‘Being the Media'!
Youth Media Project
The Jackson Free Press is thrilled to host the second summer of a joint youth media effort by public and private school teens in Jackson. last year, they critiqued the media. This year they are stepping up and being the media themselves!
JPD Under Fire In Abortion Clash
Jackson police stood with full riot gear in Smith Park downtown on July 15, ready to take on protesters in the country's abortion battle. Both sides were poised for battle in the city with Mississippi's only remaining abortion clinic, months after the Legislature barely beat back an attempt to ban all abortions in the state of Mississippi.
Jimmy King
We sit on the concrete steps that protrude out of the grass on an empty lot near the corner of Pearl and Minerva, I on a white handkerchief that Jimmy King has put down and he on the cold concrete. I've known King, whom I call Mr. Jimmy, for almost 10 years. He is the proprietor of the Subway Lounge, in the basement of the abandoned Summer's Hotel, which opened Dec. 16, 1966. He is also the elegant presence in the documentary "Last of the Mississippi Jukes," which just debuted on the Black STARZ network.
Subject: Send to your Republican friends all across MS
The following e-mail went around the Sunday before the March 11 primary. When one of the JFP writers got it (through an account for an organization he volunteers with), it had the sender's name listed, as well as a list of other e-mail addresses it went to, including many people who work at a bank in Brookhaven and members of the local business press. We are seeking a comment from the sender.
The Choices Chicks Make
I spoke to a roomful of young chicks recently. We were all packed into the charming old depot in Forest, Miss., some 40 miles from where I grew up in Neshoba County. They've renovated the building into a downtown art gallery and performance space in a small town where such cultural offerings are unusual.
Melton Backs Off Vow to Close Apartments
Clarion-Ledger reports today:
Will New Palin ‘Racially Tinged' Attacks Backfire on McCain?
Bizarrely, the McCain campaign announced to media over the weekend that it was going to launch personal attacks on Barack Obama to try to turn attention away from the economy, which is helping drive national and battleground state polls way up for Obama. Sarah Palin is already on the campaign trail trying to tie Obama to terrorists, prompting the Associated Press to warn that McCain may pay deeply for this tactic:
Melton's Bahamas Trip Still Haunting Him
How 'bout them apples? (And what a testament to the puzzle a couple of blog entries can unlock!)
Remember way back on March 3 when we first told Jackson on a JFP blog posting that Melton seemed to be bound for the Bahamas right in the midst of all his drama about catching Vidal "The Most Dangerous Man in Jackson" Sullivan? (A roommate of a staffer was on a plane with him to Dallas and called us from the airport there; then a person with the city told us he was headed to the Bahamas, thus setting off this whole travel-gate narrative.) The Clarion-Ledger did a good job of follow-up that weekend and found him in a hotel in the Bahamas with his two bodyguards. Then he told a Ledger reporter he would "cream" her if she did the story. Well, now the story is back on the front page of the Ledger because Melton threatened to expose City Council travel expenses after they challenged his unauthorized temporary employees this month. And guess what? His travel expenses are the most expensive—and he seems to have never reimbursed the city for his bodyguards' ritzy stay in the Bahamas.
BREAKING: 'Two Lakes' Developer McGowan Gave $6,000 to Secretive PAC
Two Lakes impresario John McGowan was the largest contributor to the controversial Better Jackson PAC that tried to defeat Harvey Johnson by using what the FBI calls "baseless" crime rankings in mailers.
16-Year-Old Arrested for Cross Burning
Police have arrested a white 16-year-old in Byhalia in North Mississippi for burning a cross in a black family's yard.
Hi From New York
We're up in New York for a long weekend while I study at a Columbia reporting seminar called "Let's Do It Better," a workshop on covering race. (I met Henry Louis Gates, Jr.!) I'm also studying extremely hard, as you can see below the fold.
Crisis: Medicaid Games Come to a Head Today
Haley Barbour's phone numbers: 359-3150, 359-3150, 720-8733, 359-3150. Call now.
In an editorial today, The Clarion-Ledger writes: "The solution to the current Medicaid funding crisis is to take $200 million from the tobacco trust fund and approve a cigarette tax increase to replenish it. It's up to the Senate and Gov. Haley Barbour. While state representatives, senators and Gov. Haley Barbour continue to stare one another down on the state Medicaid funding, hoping the other will blink, there are a lot of scared Mississippians wondering what they will do without health care. The program is set to run out of money today."
Orley Hood Riffs on Mayor of ‘Over There'
One of our Rankin County readers just alerted us to this lovely piece of pontification in the Rankin Ledger, courtesy of one of the "journalists" who cooed over candidate Melton back when. Per Orley:
Good Friday ... Saturday ... Monday ...
Walking on the beach last week in my undisclosed vacation spot butting up to the Gulf of Mexico, I noticed two teen girls, say around age 17, walking toward Todd and me in string bikinis. Suddenly, one of them bent down and gently picked up a big piece of plastic lying on the beach and kept walking.
Update: ‘Jena 6' Sentence Overturned
Update: Today a Louisiana appeals court overturned the conviction of Mychal Bell, one of the "Jena 6" who were facing severe charges for their end of a racially tinged feud at a school in Jena, La. Read more here. Maggie Burks of the Jackson Free Press has been covering the case since early August, when she went to Jena to cover Al Sharpton's visit there in support of the young men. Read her Aug. 8 story here. Read the Wikipedia entry on the case here
Oktibbeha County Rejects Civil Rights Monument
Nice. From the Ledge:
Melton's Lawn Crew, Unveiled
The Jackson Free Press has learned that the head of a lawn service, financially seeded by Mayor Frank Melton, was arrested for armed robbery and rape in recent years. However, the young man tells the JFP that he pled to a lesser robbery charge, and the woman who accused him of rape in 2001 dropped the charge and is, in fact, the mother of one of his four children.