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Hot Over 'Heat and Serve' Housing

A heated March 9 Jackson City Council meeting followed a March 8 work session attended by about 40 angry South Jackson residents concerned over the plan to create a lease-to-own single-family home subdivision. Neighbors say Valley Park Subdivision with its 15-year leasing option, is akin to "canned instant decay—just heat and serve," according to one opponent.

Chakra Wakening

I have been practicing yoga on and off for a few years now, first taking classes at the YMCA, then Butterfly Yoga, which I still frequent when I can. But lately my schedule has been so hectic that the only way to get my yoga practice in is at home on my own or with a video.

[Parrish] Memo To The Mainstream

I have a three-word response to the media frenzy that followed revelation of the long-secret identity of Deep Throat: Downing Street Memo.

Student Exchange Sponsor Hounded by Complaints

An organization suspended from bringing foreign exchange students to the U.S. was hounded in recent years by allegations of mismanagement.

How Often Should You Give?

My driving routine involves the same streets just about everyday. One day I was approaching the traffic light on Adkins Boulevard preparing to cross over to Beasley Road when I noticed a small man who appeared to be homeless sitting in the grass alongside the street. The light turned red as the man stood and waited for the cars to stop.

McCain Gives Up on Michigan

Politico just broke the news that John McCain is giving up on Michigan:

St. Paddy's A Boon for the City

The roughly 70,000 visitors who will descend on Jackson this weekend for Mal's St. Paddy's Parade will bring more with them than green clothing and a strong thirst. The parade, now in its 28th year, has an overall economic impact of $6.8 million for the city, according to the Jackson Convention & Visitors Bureau. The crowds that gather downtown for the parade also spend money on hotels and food and other goods, giving many city businesses some of their most lucrative days of the year.

Webster: No Patience For ‘Fluff'

Retired Coahoma County Judge Joe Webster, who is presiding over Mayor Frank Melton's trial next week, is a personality with little patience for "dilly-dally," say lawyers who have worked with him.

[MomDom] Aching For A Child

My husband and I meet weekly with six other couples. At one point four of them were pregnant. For a few weeks it seemed that each Monday night another couple announced their pregnancy. Our group of friends bonds closer as the women grow great with child. Each week Will, my husband, and I get to share in the joy of watching these expectant mothers' bellies get larger and larger. They talk about who will get an epidural or deliver naturally, if she will breast feed, how much diapers will cost and if she will go back to work. All this while we try to decide if the blob that somewhat resembles a baby on the black-and-white sonogram picture looks like the mom or dad. Although I am extremely happy for them, my heart aches.

[Ladd] Just As I Am

I was baptized when I was 13 in a Southern Baptist church in Neshoba County. I wasn't particularly spiritual; there was more anger and selfishness and confusion in my heart than love. I couldn't have been ready to live a godly life; I didn't know what it meant. I just walked down the aisle because everybody else was doing it.

The Surging General

There's no doubt that Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, a medical doctor and former governor of Vermont, has excited young voters. With his upturned fists and shrill, outspoken dislike for the policies of George W. Bush, he echoes the disenfranchisement of many young (and not-so-young) Democrats. His hot-tempered "anger" and populist posturing has motivated voters like few candidates before him in recent memory, causing him to be compared to everyone from Harry Truman (a comparison he makes himself) to George McGovern and to both Presidents Roosevelt. And, for the past few months, his national poll numbers have enjoyed a lot of empty space between them and the rest of the nine Democratic presidential candidates up against Bush this year—at least until now.

Planning an Ideal Neighborhood for Kids

An ideal neighborhood for children begins with including children in the planning process. This doesn't mean families, developers or planners put in an amusement park with ice cream stands on every block. It means professionals and adults take children's ideas seriously and pay attention to common concerns that both children and adults have.

Chef St. John Pulls Up an Extra Table

When the Edwards Street Fellowship Center, an outreach ministry of the United Methodist Church in Hattiesburg, didn't have enough food to feed their clients, they called Robert St. John.

Standing By Our Men

Jackson Wives Speak Out for Soldiers Who Said 'No'

At 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 14, someone in Iraq called Jacqueline Butler to tell her, "Your husband has been arrested, read his rights, charged for disobeying a direct order, and now he is being held in a tent." As soon as Jacqueline hung up, she called her brother and later tried Rep. Bennie Thompson's office, where she spoke with Michael Montgomery, and then she called The Clarion-Ledger to see if they could help her find some truth in the matter. What did she find? There were other troops' family members in the Jackson area doing the same thing: They had received similar calls on the same morning.

Protecting God's Green Acre

I didn't go to church Sunday, but I did recycle. It wasn't until after dark when Todd and I made our twice-weekly (thrice lately as we've been moving into a new place) foray to the alley behind the Rainbow Coop. We love doing this. We started and recycling years ago in Colorado Springs, where we would stop off at the microbrewery next to the recycle plant and get a refill of our "growler" of amber beer.

[Balko] Cops Beat Unarmed Future Cop

A year ago this month, Jordan Miles, an 18-year-old music student at Pittsburgh's Creative and Performing Arts High School, was walking to his grandmother's home in the city's Homewood neighborhood when three undercover police officers in an unmarked white car decided he looked "suspicious." Officers Richard Ewing, Michael Saldutte and David Sisak, all white, would later say in police reports that Miles, who is black, seemed to be "sneaking around" and had a bulky object protruding from his coat that appeared to be a gun. It turned out to be a bottle of Mountain Dew--which, curiously, was never taken into evidence.

Despite Debt Crisis, EU Wins Nobel Peace Prize

The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering peace on a continent ravaged by war, yet the Norwegian prize jury warned Friday that the financial crisis challenging the bloc's unity could lead to a return to "extremism and nationalism."

Prison Factories Caught in Private Biz Debate

Factories that employ convicted felons are at the heart of a simmering debate about whether prisons should be siphoning away jobs—and at much lower wages.

Editorial Takes Dim View of Katrina Recovery Fund Diversions

An editorial in yesterday's New York Times looked askance at the way the federal government has allowed Mississippi to divert funds from disaster aid meant to assist moderate and low-income people on the coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina more than four years ago. In Mississippi's Failure the Times writes about a report from the Steps Coalition, "Hurricane Katrina: Has Mississippi Fallen Further Behind?" which JFP Assistant Editor Lacey McLaughlin mentioned in a story we published Sept. 2.

Bloomberg Factchecks the Clintons

Al Hunt of Bloomberg News dissects what the Obama and Clinton campaigns have been saying about each other—and finds that the Clintons are severely distorting their comments about Obama:

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