Jackson Free Press

Should Tort Awards Be Capped?

Tort law is used to determine who is responsible when someone is injured and how much a guilty party should pay an injured person. Our current tort system is designed …

Tort Reform: Myths and Realities

Some persistent myths seem to surround the tort reform discussion—even in media reporting—while other items are often offered as facts while they're closer to either assumptions or just simply guesses. …

Coalition Calls for ‘Meaningful' Insurance Reform

Gov. Haley Barbour may be getting more than he bargained for in the 2004 Extraordinary Session he called to wrangle the House of Representatives into accepting his versions of tort …

[Ladd] Ask the $34,000-A-Day Questions

In January, I wrote an editor's note about the governor that miffed some Democrats around the city. They told me I went too easy on Barbour. I wrote then that …

Bush Ratings Fall Steady, Predictable?

In Salon this week, economist James K. Galbraith challenges the conventional notion that the relvelations of torture and prisoner abuse in Iraq have caused Bush's current record dip in the …

[Lott] Base Closure

By a razor thin 49 to 47 vote, the Senate narrowly missed an opportunity to put overseas military bases ahead of domestic facilities in the anticipated 2005 base closure round. …

[Young] Cruelty Cuts Across Nationality, Gender Lines

Almost anything that can be said about the recently revealed abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American and British troops is going to be a cliché. It's horrifying and sickening; it's …

Lawmaker upset over beheading

Jeff Clark of the Daily Times reported Members of the Mississippi Congressional Delegation are outraged by the recent turn of events that have unfolded in Iraq, including the beheading of …

Barbour: Of Course, Bush Will Take Mississippi

The Clarion-Ledger reports today: "Mississippi Republicans say President Bush can bank on a solid re-election showing here and in much of the South, but the latest poll shows him in …

[Lott] Look at the Numbers

The economy is growing, and jobs are being created. But don't take my word for it. Just look at the latest numbers by the Department of Commerce. Virtually every economic …

Barbour Calls Special Session for Tort Reform, Voter ID

[Verbatim statement] Governor Haley Barbour is standing by his pledge to call lawmakers back to the Capitol since the House of Representatives failed to address lawsuit abuse during their Regular …

Bush Approval Ratings at All-Time Low

CBS News is reporting: "President Bush's overall approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency, 44 percent, in the latest CBS News poll, reflecting the weight of …

Black Monday: Mississippi's Ugly Response to 'Brown v. Board' Decision

It was the late spring 1953, and Gov. Hugh White had called a crucial special session of the Mississippi Legislature. He needed to mobilize a group of moderate lawmakers. If …

[Ladd] Thin Line Between Love and Hate

I was talking to a young woman the other day who is in the family of a Jackson man who toiled and lobbied and prodded and threatened for many years …

GOP Blames Soldiers, Dems, Media for Scandal

In an editorial, The New York Times exposes the strategy to protect the White House from prisoner-abuse fall-out: "The administration and its Republican allies appear to have settled on a …

[Mimi] Last of the Red-Hot Sugar Mamas

Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, …

Fran's Creole Girls

When I was a child in the 1950s, white middle class society pitied childless women. They had few options for a productive life outside of motherhood. The husband of a …

[Cohen] The Enemy Within

Our new NOISE section will highlight the JFP's breaking online stories, hot blog discussions and exclusive online op-eds. Starting this week, the JFP is asking a number of opinionated souls …

[Lott] Keeping Up Our Recovery

Web Exclusive

Twice as many jobs were created in March than expected, more than 300,000 nationally. That shows the U.S. economy is indeed rebounding with a total of 750,000 jobs added since …

Triple Trouble at MDHS

The Mississippi Department of Human Services' latest troubles have come in threes: Children's Rights, a national advocacy group has filed a federal lawsuit against it; the state auditor is investigating …