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Fighting Still Rages in East Ukraine Despite Cease-Fire
The Ukrainian government and the separatist rebels blamed each other Friday for violating a fragile cease-fire dozens of times, sparking fears of wider hostilities in war-torn eastern Ukraine.
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Iraq Launches Operation to Retake Tikrit from Islamic State
Backed by allied Shiite, Sunni and Iranian fighters, Iraqi security forces launched a large-scale military operation Monday to recapture Saddam Hussein's hometown from the Islamic State extremist group, a major …
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Cover
2015 Games to Watch
If you could do nothing but travel the state each weekend to watch football, which games would you go see? I have spent weeks looking at schedules to tell you …
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Editor's Note
Need Solutions? Love The Problem
What Jackson needs, perhaps more than anything else, is more taxpaying people to help shoulder the burden and work on solutions.
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JFP Interviews
Green: Farming an Economic Future
Raised on a farm and the daughter of a sharecropper, Addie Lee Green remembers learning how to chop down trees for firewood as a child. Now she is running to …
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NFL Suspends Brady 4 Games for Deflated Footballs
Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are preparing for a fight. The reigning Super Bowl MVP will appeal his four-game suspension, his agent said, and the team threw its …
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Clinton's Benghazi Emails Show Correspondence with Adviser
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton received monthly missives about the growing unrest in Libya from a longtime friend who was previously barred by the White House from working …
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11 Ukrainian Troops Dead, 33 Wounded by Rebels
Three days before Ukraine holds a presidential vote, pro-Russia insurgents attacked a military checkpoint Thursday in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 11 troops and wounding at least 33 others in …
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Pistorius Could Get 15 Years for Culpable Homicide
A South African judge on Friday found Oscar Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp but declared him not guilty of murder. Prosecutors said …
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Immigration
Trump, Congress Leaders Reach Deal to End Shutdown
Yielding to mounting pressure and growing disruption, President Donald Trump and congressional leaders on Friday reached a short-term deal to reopen the government for three weeks while negotiations continue over …
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City & County
City Council Approves $2 Million for Multi-Use Trail, Questions Data Scientist on Deliverables
"While we've been doing walking trails in various parts of the city, we wanted to connect west Jackson, make sure that there were no parts of our city that were …
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City & County
Jackson Planning Director Confirmed As Two Councilmen Question Her Record
Two Jackson City Council members voted against Director of Planning and Development Jordan Hillman's official confirmation to a new term on Thursday, Sept. 10.
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Natchez Publisher Promotes To-the-death 'Rodeo' for Black Youth, Age 13+
By Donna LaddA dark storm is brewing in and near Natchez, Miss., after the publisher of MissLou Magazine, The Natchez Sun and Natchez Sun XPress made shocking statements about young black people on Jan. 11, 2017, apparently in jest.
Peter Rinaldi wrote in a MissLou Magazine column titled, "Bang, Bang, You're Dead": "Natchez has become increasingly dangerous in the last eight years. As the population becomes more demographically poor, uneducated, unskilled and dominantly African American, the number of shootings has gone through the roof."
Rinaldi then lists three shootings and two deaths since the year started. He then added: "This is not such a bad thing, as one cynic remarked. The more criminals who shoot each other and are 'taken out,' the safer it is for the rest of us, the logic goes. Three shootings, three bad guys eliminated. Fifty shootings, 50 bad guys eliminated."
Then, he turns to joking, it seems, saying that "we were glad to hear local officials have finally fashioned a new anti-violence plan, which will be advertised in print and on the airwaves shortly, with posters spread all over town." That plan, he wrote, is called the Natchez-Adams County Gangbangers' Rodeo, which will be held March 12 at 7 p.m. at Liberty Park (where Natchez's Klan rallies used to happen, but we'll get to that). It is open to those 13 and up.
Rinaldi then explains in detail how this "rodeo" will work: "Open to all gangbangers with a .45 or 9 mm handgun. Limited to 20 rounds per person. Entry fee $100. Must be paid in cash in advance. No checks." The participants will then get in a circle and start shooting each other when the referee fires the starter pistol. They all kill or maim each other, and the last one standing gets $10,000. Free hot dogs and beers will be served, as well as fireworks. DJ Mortem, he writes, will provide live rap music. (See images of his event description below.)
The Mississippi Rising Coalition on the Gulf Coast alerted me to the editorial. Lea Campbell of MRC sent me the following statement:
"This kind of blatantly racist and classist editorializing and commentary from the publisher of a magazine in the Natchez area is irresponsible and unacceptable. Widespread violence in a community is the symptom of underlying social problems like poverty, institutional and structural racism, underfunded and segregated educational systems, untreated mental illness among many, many others. Mr. Rinaldi fails to express an understanding of these factors and scapegoats the issue of increasing violence in a way that will only act to fuel further racial and class division in the community instead of bringing the various community members together to work on effective, sustainable solutions. Shame on him for using his power and platform in such a reckless, dehumanizing and negligent way."
She also sent this statement from an MRC member whose parents reside in Natchez: "There are a million reasons that these shootings are occurring, and not a single one of them is …
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City & County
Stamps Calls for ‘State of Emergency’ Over Lead, Walks Out After It Fails
Ward 4 Councilman De’Keither Stamps walked out of Wednesday night’s special Jackson City Council meeting after failing to get support for a state of emergency over lead pipes in Jackson …
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Johnson Gives State of the City Address
verbatim statement
Thank you Reverend Stanley Smith for offering the invocation today. To President Bluntson and members of the Jackson City Council, other elected officials, City Employees, citizens of Jackson and friends, …
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The Day That Emmett Died
Twelve-year-old Simeon Wright lay in his bed in his family's small house near Money, Miss., in the Mississippi Delta. It was Saturday night, Aug. 27, 1955, and Simeon was tired …
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2003: Nightlife
<b>Best Bar Bathroom: Hal & Mal's, 200 S. Commerce St., 948-0888</b>
Someone accused us of coming up with this category so that Hal & Mal's could win hands-down. That's not true: We've always believed that a bar is only as good …
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Best of Jackson 2003: Nightlife
Best Bar Bathroom: Hal & Mal's, 200 S. Commerce St., 948-0888 Someone accused us of coming up with this category so that Hal & Mal's could win hands-down. That's not …
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Will New Palin ‘Racially Tinged' Attacks Backfire on McCain?
Bizarrely, the McCain campaign announced to media over the weekend that it was going to launch personal attacks on Barack Obama to try to turn attention away from the economy, …
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Melton's Bahamas Trip Still Haunting Him
How 'bout them apples? (And what a testament to the puzzle a couple of blog entries can unlock!)
Remember way back on March 3 when we first told Jackson on a JFP blog posting that Melton seemed to be bound for the Bahamas right in the midst of …
