Jackson Free Press

2006: The Year That Was (Nuts)

As we survey the top local news from this past year, we have to take a deep breath and feel a measure of pride. Time after time over the last …

Quentin Whitwell

Quentin Whitwell, 37, is a local political advisor and the go-to guy for many campaigns in the state. He co-founded the largely Republican government-relations firm The Talon Group in 2004, …

Just the Facts: A Reader's Guide to the Melton Interview

Donna Ladd's interviews with Frank Melton have been conducted in several meetings since March 23 in his office in City Hall, his home and around the streets of Jackson in …

Four Things

Things I've Learned Since I've Been at the JFP:

1. Always park across the street. When I went to interview the Lettuce Ladies (on my second day) I parked directly in the parking lot of the gas station where …

Jail: My Experience

Last week I was arrested for a charge I am legally not old enough to commit. I was transfered to the downtown jail in a car that the officer was …

Eaves Makes Front Page of NY Times

In a story headlined In Mississippi, Democrat Runs in G.O.P. Lane, reporter Adam Nossiter explores John Eaves' run to Haley Barbour's right on social and religious issues:

Chronicling Jackson's BOOM

It just occurred to me when I sat down to write this that the Saints won the Super Bowl within weeks of the King Edward re-opening--after both had suffered roughly …

Threading Our Path

Sixty-one-year-old Gwen Magee grew up surrounded by arts and crafts, immersed in her mother's passion for knitting, crocheting, ceramics—anything except sewing. "She hated anything to do with sewing. I took …

Singing Without Shame

Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queen, and I are pulling thick wires out of glittered sweet potatoes on a farm in Clinton. Inside a barn, two Sweet Potato Queens, …

BeerTalk: Taste of The South

Most beer aficionados are not even aware that the southern United States is the next big "thing" on the beer horizon, with many microbreweries and brewpubs opening in the region. …

Anna Kline and Walter Biggins

A love of art and culture brought book editor Walter Biggins and singer-songwriter Anna Kline together. In 2008 Anna was working as the coordinator for the Crossroads Film Festival when …

Legislature In Overtime, Criminal Justice Reform Top Priority

Efforts to change the Mississippi flag first appeared stalled out: Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann condemned the effort to a committee, which showed no intention of calling it up.

Barbers Get Mental Health Training to Aid Black Communities

The barber’s chair may be the new therapy couch for parts of the South where mental health care is in short supply.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Learning to Roar in Mississippi from Anne, Hazel and Fannie Lou

Mississippi has long had women warriors who don't flinch at attempts to make them shut our little mouths, who stare back, who write scathing columns, who get the hell beaten …

Contemplating Chaos in a Nation of 'Soft Targets'

When her cousin and 11 others were gunned down at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater last July, Anita Busch lost all interest in her favorite television crime dramas.

Rusted Tin to Cotton Gin: A Trip on the Mississippi Blues Trail

Geographic routes of discovery on the Mississippi Blues Trail are as varied and plentiful as the paths weaving through the history of the music itself—music that began as spirituals, work …

Robert Thompson: Family Man

Robert Thompson is no stranger to comebacks. This May, he's hoping to rally from a 2005 defeat by Frank Bluntson to win the election for Jackson's Ward 4 City Council …

Johnson Sends ‘First 48' Packing

"First 48," an A&E network program that follows police for the first 48 hours of a murder investigation, won't be shooting in Jackson if Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. has anything …

Mr. Newhouse: Think ‘Community'

July 5, 2006 Get up to speed on The Clarion-Ledger's scheme here. Or, see Darren Schwindaman's TDN cartoon primer. Editor & Publisher magazine—a national industry bible for journalists, newspapers and …

The Vernon Brothers, Hood Baby and the Barnacles, Arkansauce and Fruition

Ardenland holds its annual BankPlus International Gumbo Festival on Saturday, Nov. 9, at Smith Park. This year, proceeds benefit the Harold T. and Hal White Memorial Scholarship. At the event, …