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[Sue Doh Nem] Gripe, Moan and Complain

Grandma 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. Something is better than nothing.

Step Up, Ledger

If you read the JFP's account of the Mayor Melton's "open" meeting with department heads this week (page 6), and then you read the Clarion-Ledger's online account posted Monday, you would have thought our reporters were at two different meetings.

Beyond the Blind Spots

Last Sunday after my yoga class, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few essentials like cat food and shampoo. The store wasn't crowded and I had my choice of lines. As usual, I exchanged a bit of banal small talk with the checker and the bagger.

More Than A Maid

Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother. I didn't have to; I wanted to. Most of my summer days, we watched "Donahue" re-runs and "Sanford and Son" and "Benson." I stayed over at her house every Friday night from the time I was in kindergarten until the sixth grade, and we started out every Saturday morning watching the "Smurfs." Then, every day after school until I was in the 11th grade (when I started driving myself to school occasionally), my routine was the same: Get off the bus, drop my backpack on the floor in the "little room," make a snack, and then my grandmother and I would watch Oprah. I miss those predictable times with my grandmother.

Do It for Jacksonians

Over the last several years, the Jackson Free Press has followed a tradition of celebrating our birthday every September by dedicating the issue to the city's progress. Our birthday cover stories typically explore just how far the city has come over the last year.

[Braden] Conversations With (28-plus) Women

Conversations with my two best girlfriends occur while we wait in the drive-thru line for a Diet Coke, during our new baby girl's nap time (we have an 8-month-old in our mix now) or when we are rushing through our grocery shopping. We have accepted this reality, as we are now all older than 28, and have also submitted to the sad fact that our once-profound wisdom has been simplified into Forrest Gump-isms: Life is like a box of chocolates, and sometimes there is sh*t in them.

[Gregory] ‘Mom, What Did You Do?'

Recently, at a flea market in a town a little south of here, I dug into a bin of old newspapers and found a copy of the Jackson Daily News printed 35 years ago to the exact date. Besides reinforcing all my superstitious beliefs, I decided that there was a reason I was led to this exact spot, in this exact time, to read this paper. That may seem a little strange to some of you, but I watch enough bad horror and am just Catholic enough to hold on to a whole barrel of irrational beliefs concerning fate, destiny and black cats—and I actually own two black cats.

No Rest For the Weary

Benjamin Franklin once said that without continual growth and progress, such words as "improvement," "achievement" and "success" have no meaning. This statement, true in the 18th century, remains so in the 21st century.

[Balko] The Hunt for Criminality

Why it's important that prosecutors know when not to bring charges.

[Brantley] My Mississipi [sic] Identity

I arrived in Metz, France, in fall 2007 equipped with new degrees in English literature and French, and enough clothes to survive the reportedly bitter winter. In the middle of the Lycée Cormontaigne high school campus, where I would be working as an English teaching assistant, stood a remnant from one or both of the World Wars.

Factchecking McCain on Small Biz

In all of Sen. John McCain's hand-wringing recently over Sen. Barack Obama's tax plan, there's something I have never seen said plainly enough that I'd like to state for the record here:

[Kamikaze] Celebrate Jackson With JAM

Webster's Dictionary defines an institution as a "significant practice, relationship or organization in a society or culture." An institution is baseball on a summer's eve. It's apple pie cooling on a windowsill. It's the Superbowl.

With Gentleness and Reverence

When Todd and I used to live in Belhaven, we'd often walk in the mornings. Nearly every morning, we would watch a harried mother--often in a big SUV talking on a cell phone with at least one kid in the car--screech through the streets, presumably taking the child to school. Almost every day, we watched moms run stop signs, and more than once, had to jump out of the way to keep from getting hit.

Birthday Reflections

As the JFP turns 6, Todd Stauffer reflects on the problem of "balance" over accuracya media problem McCain's lying spree has brought front and center.

[Sue Doh Nem] Caucus, Cabaret and Disco

Boneqweesha 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 a bird's-eye view of a serious political party going on at Clubb Chicken Wing. Correspondent TaaQweema Jenkins is on the scene. Let's cut in on the action to see what's happenin'."

[Hightower] Money In, Money Out

Surely you don't think that campaign donations from wealthy interests are intended to buy favors from our lawmakers, do you?

Fight or Fight

It's an odd world where Councilman Kenny Stokes is standing with FOX News celebrities who care more about profiling young blacks than protecting citizens' rights. But in the aftermath of the Frank Melton acquittals last week, we are living in a bizarro-land populated by strange bedfellows, led by a mayor and police chief who yelp about "drug houses" but arrest no drug dealers.

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