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Project EJECT Or Not: Mayor Disputes Grant Connection to Federal Strategy

A new federal grant to help the Jackson Police Department purchase new surveillance equipment is not part of the controversial Project EJECT crime strategy, Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba insisted this week.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Journalism Can Beat the Hell Out of You, But It Must Go On

"When you get into this crazy business for the express purpose of having positive impact, you make it happen no matter what and find people who share the same drive to help you."

Whitney Place In the Works

Watkins Partners Developer David Watkins said today that his plans for a multi-use development on eight acres of land in Fondren will replace the deteriorating 1930s business strip used as a set for "The Help" with vibrant residential and retail space.

Judge Denies Melton Defense Motions

Friday the 13th was a dark day for Mayor Frank Melton and his two police bodyguards Michael Recio and Marcus Wright. This was their first real day in court regarding the events of Aug. 26, 2006, when Ridgeway Street residents say they saw the Mobile Command Center roll up in front of Evans "Bubba" Welch's duplex, near the corner of Mill Street. Melton was carrying a "Walking Tall" sticka club about 4 feet long and 4 inches in diameter with one end wrapped in black electrical tape. After one of his bodyguards broke down the back door of the duplex, Melton immediately started swinging the club, breaking the windows on the front and the sides of the house. He left for medical attention after he cut his hand on one of the windows, but the group returned an hour later.

Invisible Coast

Photos by Chris Davis

A half-year after their world changed forever, lots of people on the Gulf Coast are thinking about desolation. They wake up to it every morning. They live through it every day.

The Most Under-reported Stories in the U.S. and Mississippi

This year's annual Project Censored list of the most under-reported news stories includes the widening wealth gap, the trial of Pfc. Bradley Manning, and President Obama's war on whistleblowers—all stories that actually received considerable news coverage.

14 Great Things About Jackson

The Jackson Free Press has officially been in business for 14 years this week. Yay, us! A lot has changed for the JFP since the early days in a one-bedroom apartment on Fortification Street, and much has changed in Jackson since our first issue celebrating the "Rise of the Creative Class" here.

Clarion-Ledger to Independents: Drop Dead!

May 9, 2006 Want to know how far The Clarion-Ledger/Gannett Corp. is willing to go to control the competition? Keep reading. This past Monday, I sat down in Cups in Fondren with Lee Warmouth, the circulation director of The Clarion-Ledger, so that he could tell me about an "exciting new service" that his company has devised for free-distribution papers like the Jackson Free Press.

Meeting Addresses Crime, Calls for Tax Increase

Straight talk was the theme at a March 27 town hall meeting on Jackson crime at the Board of Education auditorium in downtown Jackson. The meeting, hosted by the Jackson Police Officers Association and the Jackson Free Press, featured Jackson Police Chief Malcolm McMillin, Assistant Chief Lee Vance, former Assistant Chief Edna Drake, Rev. Hosea Hines, and Det. Juan Cloy and David Domino of the police union. Hinds County DA Robert Smith was also slated to be on the panel, but his assistant called just before the event to say he wouldn't attend. City Councilman Margaret Barrett-Simon canceled earlier the day of the event.

Levee Board Votes for Corps-Approved Plan

The Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District voted this morning to move head with a levees-only flood-control plan endorsed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Flowood Mayor Gary Rhoads moved to accept the Corps' recommendation that the levees along the Pearl River between Hinds and Rankin counties be extended.

Just Five Years to RiverWalk?

Jackson developer David Watkins wants to move the Town Creek out of its traditional bed and replace it with a scenic, man-made canal stretching from Mill Street to the creek's Pearl River confluence.

On the Delta's Tamale Trail

Three of us, women who have lived all over the country but with firm roots in Mississippi, pile into Lizzie's silver hatchback in search of a Mississippi birthrightDelta-style tamales.

Sharpton Defends the 'Jena 6'

Photos by Chelsi West & Maggie Burks

In the small, pastoral town of Jena, La., police arrested six black students 15 to 17 years old and charged them with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy after a string of racially charged events climaxed with a school fight on Dec. 4, 2006.

Coming On Home

Expatriates return, work for change

Four years ago this week I was languishing at a picnic table in front of tent No. 11 in an area called Boy's Town in the majestic Yosemite Valley. I was working as a waitress in a hotel bar and living a life of hippie-like ease. I've called the two years I lived there the happiest of my life. So why am I back here now?

Fallout of Tate Reeves’ Executive Order: Department Store Roulette, Scared Associates

The concrete shopping jungle known as Dogwood Festival Market looked as much like a ghost town as it could as the sun started to set on a warm spring Saturday afternoon.

And LGBTQ Rights March On: The Who, What, How in Mississippi

Although there is growing support for equal rights in both Jackson and the state, legislation like SB 2681 has the potential to encourage and legalize discrimination, harking back to Jim Crow legislation.

The Billion-Dollar Levee Question

Downtown Jackson Partners President Ben Allen came out last week as an avid opponent of a levee expansion, saying it is too expensive. His choice, Two Lakes, is also expensive, and perhaps more so.

'ShopLocal' Blog Declares War on JFP; Says We're 'Misinformed'

In a post that can only be called "jaw-dropping" in its hubris, Gannett's ShopLocal blog has taken major umbrage with the JFP's special local-business issue last week, which exposed "local washing" by huge corporations such as Gannett, and especially my piece revealing the ShopLocal scam that Jackson's outlet of Gannett, The Clarion Ledger, is pushing. It seems that us dumb-little-LOCAL types are "misinformed" about "local" really means, and ShopLocal Senior Director of Product Management Patrick Flanagan decided to take time out of his busy corporate day up in Chicago (where this division of ShopLocal hangs out its shingle) to correct us dumb hicks. You see, "local" isn't necessarily "local." You could be talking about "national-local," or "local-local," or "hyper-local," or whatever other phrase the country's largest newspaper company wants to use to whitewash what they're doing.

[Spann] Without Dodging a Single Bullet

I watched the previews on television all week with apprehension. I thought, "Please don't let it be Mississippi." I've never been ashamed of Mississippi, though I've often renounced the racists and other trite characters that call our state home. But fears about my state being misrepresented ran rampant when I saw scenes from an upcoming episode of the NBC drama "Crossing Jordan." The show's characters were to visit a southern state to render Bostonian justice for an old hate crime.

Letters No. 1, September 22-28

<b><u>The Repressive Regime</b></u>

In George Bush's televised prime-time speech to the nation revealing his plan to move forward after Katrina, he dropped this little bomb: "It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces."

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