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Bluntson is Jackson City Council President

With a unanimous vote from the new Jackson City Council, Ward 4 Councilman Frank Bluntson was installed as council president this afternoon, with Ward 5 Councilman Charles Tillman as his vice president.

Public Meetings This Week

Monday, Sept. 14

4 p.m., Jackson City Council, special meeting in the City Hall council chambers, 219 S. President St.

New Orleans Frequently Downgrades Rape Charges

In the wake of the much-touted FBI Uniform Crime Rankings for violent crime, the way New Orleans police report rapes highlights the reasons why the FBI warns the media against using their numbers as benchmarks. A story appearing in Saturday's Times-Picayune says that New Orleans police classify more than half of all sexual assaults against women as noncriminal complaints.

Court Casting Wide Net for Jurors In Melton Trial

Citing exhaustive coverage of Frank Melton in local media, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Jordan said at a hearing today that juror selection for the Jackson mayor's federal trial will pull from as far away as Pascagoula. Jordan said that it will be difficult to find jurors in the Jackson metropolitan area not "potentially tainted by the exposure of this case."

Sandra Peterson Lott

The moment Sandra Peterson Lott sits down with her lunch, I sense her comforting nature. She has an hour-long lunch break from her duties as a pediatric nurse, but she ignores her food to talk about her passion: ministering to children and unwed mothers.

Gov. and Dems Play Blame Game

Gov. Haley Barbour and House Democrats are blaming each other for the Legislature's failure to re-authorize the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, an agency that provides workforce services and dispenses unemployment benefits.

Levee Board Pushs Corps on Lakes Plans, Again

At a meeting this morning, the Levee Board again pushed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to justify the $4 million the Corps has said it will cost just to revisit the feasibility and costs of two controversial Lakes plans it says are unlikely to happen.

Jimmie Travis

During the violent, bloody days of the civil rights movement in Mississippi, Freedom Rider Jimmie Travis nearly lost his life. In February 1963, Travis, then 20, was driving a car outside Greenwood with Bob Moses, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Randolph Blackwell, voter registration director of the Voter Education Project.

Small Businesses Honored

[verbatim] The Mississippi U.S. Small Business Administration will honor its 2009 small business award winners during a dinner reception on Tuesday, June 16 at the Mississippi e-Center @ JSU located at 1230 Raymond Road in Jackson, Miss. Registration starts at 5:30 p.m.

Barbour and Hospitals Battle Before Judge

Attorneys for Gov. Haley Barbour and the Mississippi Hospital Association swapped arguments today before Hinds County Chancery Court Judge William Singletary. The Mississippi Hospital Association and a group of about 43 Mississippi hospitals are asking Singletary to enforce his July order that Barbour could not raise taxes on hospitals without legislative approval.

U.S. Supreme Court Asked To Hear Seale Case

A federal appeals court has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case of James Ford Seale, who was convicted in 2007 for kidnapping and conspiracy for his role in a 1964 civil-rights murder. In a request issued today, a majority of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals asked the high court to decide whether the statute of limitations had expired when prosecutors tried Seale on charges of kidnapping two African-American teenagers, Henry Dee and Charles Moore.

Cigarette Tax Hike Still in Limbo

Mississippi legislators reconvene next week to continue haggling over whether to send a bill to increase taxes on cigarettes to the governor, and how high the tax should be, reports Forbes.com.

Human Rights Movement ‘Still Taking Off'

Sixty years after the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, advocates such as Father Jerome Tobin say the fight isn't over, not even after more than a half century later.

[Capitol Report] Open Hands Abound

The House Ways and Means Committee continued the hearing on bond project proposals at a June 16 meeting at the State Capitol. The hearing, part of the preparation for the June 28 special session, was essentially a forum for representatives of state organizations, both public and private, to vent their financial shortfalls for the upcoming year to the House committee.

Partyin' with the Lawyers

The Mississippi Center for Justice will host a street party on Congress from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, June 13, on Congress Street."

Great Balls of Fire

Traffic was snarled for miles around the Fondren shopping area, on Old Canton Road, early Friday morning. As many drivers took detours on their way to work and school, those who worked in or near the area had to park and walk. The rumor went around that "Fondren is burning," but upon closer inspection, it turned out that one business—interior designers Cindy E. Walsh and Associates—had burned. The store was located right in the apex of the main Fondren shopping strip. Smoke from the fire damaged merchandise in Summerhouse and the two clothing stores, Soma and Swell, in the same strip.

Medicaid Train Wreck

The most momentous action so far during the special session wasn't technically on the agenda: Gov. Haley Barbour signed HB 1434 Wednesday, May 26, a "landmark" bill to cut $106 million from the state budget and terminate 65,000 low-income and disabled Mississippians from the Medicaid rolls as of July 1. Of those, 60,000 will be shifted to the federal Medicare program by 2006 (which can see more cuts later), and the medical fates of the other 5,000 are uncertain. They will not be eligible right away for Medicare, nor are they certain to receive prescription drug coverage under Barbour's plan.

A ‘Crucial' Tax

To help the city fund a convention center, the Jackson City Council has approved Mayor Harvey Johnson's proposal for a 1-percent optional sales tax increase, and other proposals that will go before the state Legislature in the next few weeks. The tax, which would exempt grocery and pharmaceuticals, would have to be approved by 60 percent of the city's voters. The exemptions might make the proposed increase more palatable to opponents who have said the regressive tax would hit people with lower incomes harder because more of their income is spent on items that are charged sales taxes.

Organics, Revisited

In response to the problems occurring nationwide with mainstream produce or foods grown with pesticides, growth hormones or that have been genetically altered, people are increasingly turning to organic food. In 2000, Mississippi passed an organic farming law that placed very strict certification requirements on organic farming to ensure that organic food is, well, organic. But Rep. Rita Martinson, R-Madison, who is on the House Agriculture Committee, says that some of the restrictions were overkill. "It is important that we make it easier for these farmers to be able to grow their crops," she said.

[Talk] Musical Education

"A significant part of our mission is education," explains Malcolm White, executive direction of the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. "Both getting Mississippi music education in the public schools and educating the general public about Mississippi's extraordinary story in the development of America's popular music." To that end, the fourth annual Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame (MMHOF) induction ceremony is complemented this year by two new events, a youth talent search and a seminar on the music industry. The latter, to be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Thursday, Aug. 7, at 6 p.m. ($20 at the door), features *NSYNC vocalist Lance Bass and a panel of music industry heavyweights, who will provide insider's tips about breaking into and succeeding in the entertainment industry.

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