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Hinds Drops Regional Jail

The Hinds County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 last Tuesday to end its efforts to build a regional jail, after spending more than $400,000 on acquiring land and designing the facility. The jail would have housed 300 state inmates and 100 county inmates, but Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps revealed to board President George Smith last week that the state had no need for additional beds. The state currently has 600 fewer inmates this year than it did in 2008.

Unsealed Suit Reveals Diaz Suing Lampton

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge James C. Sumner signed a June 22 order denying a motion to seal a suit against former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz and his wife Jennifer, bringing to light the continuing saga of a federal court battle between Diaz and former U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton.

Frustrated Voters Overhaul Court

Election Day brought an upset of Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Smith, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce favorite, but the outcome may not have loosened the corporate lobby's influence on the court's decisions. The Chamber spent millions of dollars on past elections promoting judges willing to steer the court in favor of corporate defendants. Their fight continued this year, with some measure of success.

Commission Scrutinizing Entergy Rate Hikes

Consumer advocates criticized Entergy for not investing in energy conservation this week during a series of Public Service Commission meetings.

Judge Faces Key Decisions In Melton Trial

A federal judge will hear arguments today on whether to hold separate trials for Mayor Frank Melton and his former police bodyguard Michael Recio. Melton and Recio are under federal indictment for civil-rights violations in conjunction with the 2006 destruction of a Ridgeway Street duplex. They beat different state charges for the incident in 2007, and their first federal trial ended in a hung jury Feb. 24. Their re-trial will begin May 11.

Reeves Blasts Stimulus, Predicts Rotten State Revenue

State Treasurer Tate Reeves slammed President Barack Obama's stimulus plan on Monday, saying Obama had chosen to "outsource" the leadership on the package to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Greatest Lie

It was press night, and all sorts of people were lining up to ask me stuff so we could put this issue to bed. But I had to leave for a couple hours, to go to Millsaps to hear one of my favorite professors initiate the Medgar Evers Lecture Series. This wasn't one of my Mississippi State profs. This was Dr. Manning Marable, the man who a thousand miles away at Columbia University taught me more about the Southern Civil Rights Movement—or what he calls the Black Freedom Movement—than I ever learned on the home soil. Most importantly, Marable affirmed my belief—the only white woman in his "Black Intellectualism" graduate-school class—that it's right, no, necessary for white people to embrace and understand African-American history. In fact, blacks and whites in this country—not to mention Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and others—have a shared history that cannot be understood if part of it is left out.

No Stoplight for Bubba

With his stiff blue collar and black-rimmed glasses, state Rep. Randy "Bubba" Pierce looks and smiles just like a politician. When we spotted him at the Neshoba County Fair, he was standing inside a horseshoe of similarly dressed men, addressing all of them at once. They seemed to be entranced by his words. Later, he said, "I speak impromptu, from the heart. I don't script myself. I like to talk to people, not speak at them." He has not written a speech so far in his political career, he said, including the one he gave that morning at the Fair.

Crash of The Blue Screen

The Help America Vote Act of 2002, passed in response to the troubled 2000 presidential elections, requires each state to have up-to-date voting machines installed and ready by Jan. 1, 2006. Meeting this demand, Mississippi followed through with its own modernization. Secretary of State Eric Clark showed off the results at an Aug. 3 conference at the state Capitol.

Tiff Over Hinds TIF

The developer of a south Jackson housing development is asking Hinds County to support infrastructure developments, but at least one supervisor remains skeptical of the request.

Legislative Update: Medicaid and Marriage

This week marked either the victory cheer or the death knell for a round of money bills seeking approval. Tuesday, specifically, marked the deadline for the House or Senate to consider bills coming in from the opposite chamber. Among those bills are the House's ensuing attempt to balance the state's ailing Medicaid budget by raising the cigarette tax to $1.18.

Utility Pushes Back on Power-Saving

Mississippi Power Company wants a proposed statewide energy-efficiency plan evaluated based on its cost to ratepayers rather than its long-term savings—a move critics say is a contrast to its desire to have ratepayers fund its own coal-plant expansion.

Finding the Facts

Researchers attempt to trace historical effects of oil industry in neighboring communities

Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Interior's much-maligned Mineral Management Service (MMS) has sponsored projects to examine the history of the Gulf. Research teams from the University of Houston with the assistance of researchers from the University of Arizona have been working on developments in Gulf Coastal communities.

City Balances Budget by Refinancing Debt

Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. announced a 2011 fiscal-year budget containing no layoffs, but promising significantly more long-term debt. The $313.6 million budget, which begins in October, is a $10.6 million decrease over the city's operating budget from the previous year.

Medicaid Boots Kids

Deborah Edmonson, a parent attending a Nov. 4 legislative hearing on Medicaid, said the state rejected her Down syndrome daughter for aid, even though the U.S. Department of Disability Services guidelines say she qualifies.

JPD's High Gas and Low Morale

The Jackson Police Department's 330 patrol vehicles are constantly on the move, requiring engines and components designed for longer idle periods and higher speeds than standard car models.

Linder-Maple, Rejected

When the New York-based Linder Maple Group finished its $153,000 crime study in 1999, it outlined a list of recommendations for Jackson to reduce major crime.

City Rewards Businesses with Tax Exemptions

Four businesses will save $1 million in property taxes on expansions they made to properties in the city of Jackson last year. The Jackson City Council voted during its Dec. 14 meeting to approve resolutions supporting property-tax exemptions for the businesses.

Lawmakers Debate Alternate Education Track

General classroom goals for high-school students, in Mississippi and elsewhere, emphasize pushing kids toward four-year college degrees. Some Magnolia state lawmakers are now looking at introducing a career-track curriculum for the many teens who may not be college bound, reports The Sun Herald.

House Panel Questions Dispersant Toxicity

Some House members left this morning's inaugural meeting of the House Select Committee on the Gulf Coast Disaster without knowing the potential risk of dispersants that British Petroleum is using to break up and sink millions of gallons of oil bursting from a destroyed deepwater oil well off the coast of Louisiana.

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