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Interim Hinds County Sheriff Moves to Curtail Violent Crime with Gun Suppression Unit

Interim Hinds County Sheriff Marshand Crisler plans to set up a gun suppression unit to arrest convicted felons caught with guns.

Mississippi Student Test Scores Decline in Math, English

The number of Mississippi students learning at or above grade level in math and English decreased across almost every age group during the first statewide assessments amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to results released by the Department of Education on Thursday.

Caller Demands JFP Not Sully Football Issue with Stories About 'Illegals,' ICE (Listen)

"Y'all get all this crap in there about this damn illegal raid on these illegal aliens that stole jobs from American citizens," he lectured. "I think that really sucks because I wanted to read about football."

Media: Stop Vilifying Black Teens, Explore Roots of Crime

One doesn’t wake up and become a criminal, nor is one born a criminal; something happens that pushes a young person toward it.

Radical Health: The JFP Interview With Dr. Joseph White

Photos by Ronni Mott

It can be challenging to write an upbeat article on health and wellness in Mississippi. We've all seen the barrel-bottoming numbers. Good news about the subject is difficult, though not impossible, to find. According to the United Health Foundation's rankings for 2006, for example, Mississippi moved to No. 49 on the overall health scale, up from No. 50 in 2005. That's a small blip on the radar, but every little bit counts, right?

Melton's Honeymoon, Part I: ‘Hurry Up And Wait'

Mayor Frank Melton rode into the mayor's office with an 88 percent margin of victory according to a July 27 press release from the city. Though the margin was lower during the Democratic primary against incumbent Harvey Johnson Jr., and only about 22.8 percent of voting-age Jackson voters (or 31.66 percent of registered voters) showed up for the election, the new mayor's supporters believed that if change could come to the city, it was action-prone Melton who could make it happen. The new mayor promised to get the city back into the jail business by building a facility for packing away the bad guys. He also planned to tear down dilapidated housing at a faster rate than the administration before him and to improve the condition of the city's streets. Furthermore, he promised to forge better relationships with the county and state and repair some of the bridges burned between the city and the county during the last eight years.

The Chicks' Guide to Living Dangerously in Jackson

Ladies, here's what you need to know to live, drink, eat and shop dangerously in the lovely metropolis of Jackson, Miss. (Guide for chicks 21 and older.) Have fun, and do what you gotta do. We sure won't tell anybody.

Blame the Music: Mayor Talks to Hip-Hop Coalition

April 13, 2005 The gap between the generations gets wider with each passing decade. Looking to bridge the gulf between gurus and grandpas, Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., spoke with the Mississippi Artists and Producers Coalition (MAP) April 5, at the Birdland Café on Farish Street. MAP, a union of rappers, singers, producers, entertainment lawyers and other media personalities, had a volley of questions to toss to the mayor.

Haley Barbour's Katrina Special-Session Speech

[verbatim transcription]September 27, 2005—Thank you. Governor Tuck, Speaker McCoy, ladies and gentlemen of the Legislature*. Fellow Mississippians.

Free the Scott Sisters

Gov. Haley Barbour should pardon Jamie and Gladys Scott—and not because we believe beyond a shadow of doubt that they are innocent. He should pardon them because they have done the time for the crime they are accused of committing.

Police Have Suspect in ‘Miracle' Shooting

Hinds County Sheriff and interim Jackson Police Chief Malcolm McMillin named convicted felon Michael Allen as the suspect in the Dec. 1 shooting of Jackson business owner Donnie Register. Register, owner of The Antique Market in Fondren, made national headlines, shielding his head from a bullet allegedly fired by Allen. The bullet ricocheted off Register's wedding band and sent fragments into his hand and neck, potentially saving him from a fatal head wound.

Crisler Leads In Funds On Election Eve

Councilman Marshand Crisler has a substantial edge in fundraising over former Mayor Harvey Johnson going into tomorrow's mayoral run-off election. Crisler raised $140,470 from April 26 through May 9, according to his latest campaign finance report, while Johnson raised $28,814.

[Talk] Colonel Bedroom

If you think that Lawrence v. Texas is just about homosexuals, you're wrong. The crux of the decision is not really about love, or sex, or sodomy, or whatever you want to call it: It's about what Justice Louis Brandeis, way back in 1928, called "the right to be let alone." Justice Anthony Kennedy, in all his Ronald Reagan-appointed glory, wrote for the Court that "there are other spheres of our lives and existence, outside the home, where the State should not be a dominant presence." The decision leaves many Americans, gay or not, cheering that for the first time in years someone has put their foot down and said that the government can go no further.

Mississippi No. 2 in Gun Deaths

States like Mississippi with high gun ownership and weak gun laws lead the nation in gun deaths, concludes a new report by the non-profit Violence Policy Center based in Washington, D.C. The Magnolia state ranks No. 2 for gun deaths with a rate of 18.32 deaths per 100,000, right behind neighboring Louisiana with a rate of 19.87 deaths.

Payday Lenders Big Donors to Lawmakers

The Mississippi Center for Justice says short-term lenders donate heavily to legislative banking committee chairmen in hopes of extending an exemption allowing them to charge up to $21.95 for every $100 loaned.

Mayor Addresses City's Budget

verbatim statement

President Bluntson, members of the City Council, employees, citizens of Jackson, and friends; thank you all for being here today as we present the FY 2010-2011 Executive Budget for the City of Jackson. This document is now before the City Council for review and subsequent adoption on or before Sept. 15, 2010. Projected expenditures include $118.8 million in General Fund appropriations, and $137.3 million in non-General Fund appropriations, for a total operating budget of $256.1 million.

[Dickerson] Can You Handle the Truth?

For a long time, I wanted to ask President Bush why, if the Dixie Chicks knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he couldn't figure it out for himself.

Kerry's ‘Merit Pay' Plan

A while back, I had occasion to talk to a woman named Lillian Lopez about a bold choice she had decided not to make. Lopez, who lives in a barrio on the east side of Oakland, Calif., is a Mexican-American mom with dark red hair and a firm and plain-spoken way of making her point. She was the front woman for a remarkable grass-roots effort by low-income parents to flee Oakland's famously lousy school system and create a handful of new charter schools.

2008 Artists to Watch

Music is constantly evolving, and so is the southern landscape that produces so many young new artists. Here are eight up-and-coming musical acts to keep an eye on.

Operation Downgrade

Gov. Haley Barbour's "Mississippi Education Reform Act of 2005," SB 2504, finally passed in the House of Representatives in early March, after living in the shadow of a looming Medicaid crisis. But the bill may be something quite different from Barbour's vision now that the Mississippi House has made considerable changes; there's a good chance the Senate will shoot it down before it even has a chance to reach that small stack on Barbour's desk.

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