| JFP Mobile | Jackson, Mississippi

Just Begin

She was sitting in the driver's seat of the car with the windows up. The two-inch ash dangled on her cigarette. I thought she must have been waiting on someone.

Councilwoman LaRita Cooper-Stokes of Ward 3 opposed the talk about possibly rescinding D.L. Johnson Consultants' redistricting contract with the city from the start of a Rules Committee meeting Thursday. When Whitwell called another consultant to the podium to speak, Cooper-Stokes walked out of the meeting.

Resolution Tango

When I was younger, I would annually trot out the usual suspects when it came time to make my new year's resolutions. You know the ones: lose weight; quit smoking; improve my relationships; get a boyfriend; re-connect with people I lost touch with.

Serve It Forth: Gifts for Your Kitchen

Are you struggling to find the gift for the cook who has everything? It's really not as hard as it seems, and it doesn't have to be pricey. I tend to give others either what I want for myself or what I find particularly useful. For me, these gifts seem to fall into three distinct groups: "tools you don't think you'll ever use," "kicked-up basics" and "splurges."

Preparing for Battle

Twenty years ago, when Cristen Hemmins was a student at Millsaps College, two teenagers pulled out a gun and abducted her in the campus parking lot. The young men raped her and shot her twice as she fled to a gas station for safety.

Support Your Local Food

When I was a child, I would wait with maddening anticipation for Friday night. That's when my dad would pick me up for the night shift at Doubles Pizza, the restaurant he owned.

[Balko] Failing Upward in Criminal Justice

When the SWAT team came for Richard Paey in 1997, officers battered down the front door of the Florida home he shared with his wife and their two children. Paey is a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair after a car accident and a botched back surgery. He also suffers from multiple sclerosis. Paey was accused of distributing the medication he used to treat his chronic pain, even though there was no evidence he had sold or given away a single pill. Thanks to Florida's draconian drug laws, he was eventually convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The Secret is ... People

I thought about going back into the JFP archives to check and see how many of these publisher's notes in previous Best of Jackson issues I've started with, "You hold in your hands the largest-ever issue of the Jackson Free Press."

‘Will You Marry Me?'

When it comes to marriage proposals that are pure genius, I have just one word for you: speakerphone. That's right ladies and gents, Mr. Romantic here proposed to his lovely wife, Kitty, on a speakerphone.

[Dickerson] Dances with Panthers

Suddenly, the big cat began moving toward me, slowly at first, then faster...

Reject the Partisan Posturing

Politics are getting uglier by the day.

Change Your Mind; Change Your Life

My first encounter with Mrs. Martin (not her real name) was the day before my birthday in August 2010. She came to my office complaining of fatigue. She was 49 years old and working as a secretary. I noticed during our initial conversation that she made poor eye contact.

Natural ‘Wonder Drugs' for Stress

My alarm woke me at 6 a.m., and I headed for the shower. Soon I was out of the house and headed to work to arrive by 7 a.m. This was going to be a great day.

Workers' Rights Under Fire

Imagine you're a Sumerian servant in 2050 B.C., carving tiny jewels for King Ur-Nammu's scepter and--oops--you accidentally slice off your finger. Under the king's law, written on stone tablets, you would receive a monetary award depending on which body part you hurt. Ur's payment schedule for worker injuries is the earliest known workers' compensation system, which pays employees who get hurt while doing their jobs.

Chief, I Crushed the Car

Recycling is great for the Earth, but a potential nightmare if you're the victim of auto theft in Jackson.

Wedge Issues Bring Heated Debates

Democrats turned up the heat in debates over abortion, immigration and voter rights last week. Up against deadlines to get bills out of committee and through floor votes, the Mississippi House and Senate dispensed with noncontroversial items to tackle wedge-issue bills.

Parchman's Past, Prison's Future

It's a strange month when the Parchman Farm comes out looking better than a county jail. On March 10, a federal judge finally dismissed the bulk of Gates v. Collier. A 1972 decision on this longstanding court case mandated a slew of reforms at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, then the only state prison in Mississippi. Federal Magistrate Judge Jerry Davis dismissed all portions of the case dealing with state institutions but not the portions regarding Mississippi counties' correctional systems.

Teresa Nicholas

I've never met writer Teresa Nicholas, but I'm getting to know her quite well. My buddy JoAnne Prichard Morris (who is also an editor of the Jackson Free Press) strongly suggested several weeks ago that I get her new book, "Buryin' Daddy" (University Press of Mississippi, 2011, $28). You'll love it, she told me.

Fannie Lou Hamer

Last Sunday, my partner, Todd Stauffer, and I set off on another of our weekend road trips that take us wherever we end up. This time, we landed in Ruleville, northwest of Greenwood, at the grave of Fannie Lou Hamer and her husband, "Pap" Hamer.

GOP May Oppose Court-ordered Maps

The Mississippi Republican Party likely will contest a three-judge panel's decision to impose the Mississippi House of Representatives' redistricting map as the official House election map for 2011.

All results / Stories

Sort By

Date

Authors